SALEM, Ore. - The Fresno Pacific cross country teams flew up to Oregon for the NCAA Division II West Regional Championships at Ash Creek Preserve on Saturday morning. Despite a challenging course and powerful competitors, the Lady 'Birds finished in fifteenth place and the Sunbird men rallied to capture fourteenth.

"Between both teams we had ten of fourteen athletes who ran a personal best!" said first-year head coach Landon Miller. "The athletes executed their race plans well and took a step forward as a program towards where we want to be in the future!"

Julissa Avila, recently named All-PacWest Third Team, finished first for the Lady 'Birds in the women's 6K, securing 44th with a time of 21:31, beating out a Seattle Pacific runner by a few milliseconds. She was the only Sunbird to make the Top 50 finishers. Aly Chavez was the next runner to cross the line to claim 67th place, followed by Mattie Whipple (22:09), Julia Martinez (22:23) and Gaby Ramirez (22:36). Rounding up a team score of 391 points, Avery Gibson (23:11) and Jaslin Arana (23:21) came in at 142nd and 149th. 

Having clinched second place at the PacWest Conference Championships, the men's spirits were high coming into the race. On the men's side, the Kenyan native Rodney Chemalmal led the charge at West Regionals, securing a time of 31:13 to come in 38th. Chemalmal's last brilliant showing was at the Clovis Invitational where he secured a first place finish and he did not disappoint in Saturday's 10k race. Evan Torres was right on Chemalmal's heels as he came in ten seconds later with a time of 31:23. Sawyer Pugliese (31:47) and David De Loera (32:11) finished next for the Sunbirds, coming in 63rd and 76th respectively. Crossing the line at 32:35, Emanuel Salas was the last Sunbird to make the Top 100 runners with his 92nd place finish. Alesandro Escarzaga (33:31) and Daniel Galvez (33:58) closed out the race for FPU, contributing to the 346 points the team collected.

This concludes the 2025 racing season for Fresno Pacific and marks a brilliant start for first-year head coach Landon Miller, who coached the men's team to a second place finish at the PacWest Conference Championships, and the women to a first place finish at the UCR Invitational in the Open Division. The future is bright for Fresno Pacific's cross country program.

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