ASHLAND – Southern Oregon looks to knock off defending champion Concordia this week as the Raiders head to Gresham for the 2013 Cascade Collegiate Conference Track and Field Championships on Friday and Saturday at Mt. Hood Community College.

“We're very excited to get up there,” SOU head coach Grier Gatlin said. “This is the culmination of a lot of hard work starting at the beginning of January, although really for most of us starting back in September with the fall program for the sprints, jumps and throws and with cross country for the distance runners.”

The Raider men are aiming for their first conference title since 2005, when the program capped a run of five league championships in a six-year stretch. Concordia took over the following year and has topped the CCC in each of the past seven years, while SOU has finished second at the last three meets.

Southern Oregon enters the championship meet with 38 top-eight conference marks this season across the various men's events, the most among any team. Eastern Oregon has 35 such marks, while Concordia has 23. With the top-three finishers in each event earning all-conference honors, the Raiders go into the championships with a conference-high 18 top-three marks, and seven Raiders top the conference rankings in their respective events: Eric Avila (Chula Vista, Calif./Bonita Vista) in both the 1500 and 5000, Hector Aleman (Seaside, Calif./Seaside ) in the 10000, Zach Boyd-Helm (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) in the 800, Sam Hartinger (Escondido, Calif./San Pasqual) in the triple jump, Jonz Olander (Grants Pass, Ore./Grants Pass) in the 400 and Sullivan Stevens (Sparks, Nev./Spanish Springs) in the 110-hurdles, plus the top-ranked 4x400 men's relay team.

The women's side looks to be even more competitive, with five different programs boasting between 20 and 33 top-eight marks. College of Idaho leads the way with 33, while SOU has tallied 21 this season. Among top-three performances, College of Idaho and Concordia lead the way with 14 apiece while SOU has nine, and the Raiders have a pair of top-ranked Raiders with Mikayla Garrard (Klamath Falls, Ore./Mazama) in the 400 and Amelia Maguin (Fernley, Nev./Fernley) in the 400-meter hurdles.

“We've set ourselves up nicely across the board to have some big performances on both the men's and women's side,” Gatlin said. “This is the time of year we really look forward to, both this and the national championships in two weeks.”

Olander returns to the championship meet as the reigning CCC Championships Men's Athlete of the Meet after claiming individual titles in both the 200 and 400 and setting a meet record in the 400 last year. The Raiders will look to defend four more event titles from 2012: Avila in the 1500, Stevens in the 110-hurdles, Garrard in the long jump and the men's 4x100 relay team.

With only the 2013 NAIA National Championships still ahead this season, all the focus is on this weekend and the Raiders' goal of ending a three-year second-place streak on the men's side. The Raider women will aim for the program's first top-three team finish since 2005, when SOU was the runner-up to conference champion Oregon Tech for the second consecutive year.

“We just want to get to Friday and Saturday and get it over with and see how we stack up against everybody,” Gatlin said. “It will be a lot less stressful when we get done on Saturday evening. But we're excited; I think we're ready, and we'll see what we can do this weekend.”