The Evergreen State College men’s cross country team is ranked ninth in the 2026 Cascade Collegiate Conference preseason poll, released Thursday, Aug. 13.
Last season, the Geoducks placed ninth at the 2025 CCC Championships. Head coach Joel Pearson is heading into his fourth year as the leader of Evergreen’s cross country and track and field teams.
The Geoducks are set to open the season on Friday, Sept. 4 at the Linfield Harrier Classic at Joe Dancer Park in McMinnville, Oregon. The 2026 CCC Championships will be held on Friday, Nov. 6 at the Lewis-Clark State College cross country trail in Lewiston, Idaho.
All of Evergreen’s top-five finishers at last year’s CCC Championships are back for the Geoducks, including senior Max Baeder, senior Jaydon Blackburn, senior Jackson Rye, junior Luis Esquivel and junior Osvaldo Calderon. Baeder took 15th place in the CCC with a time of 25:12 to earn all-conference honors and advance to the 2025 NAIA Cross Country Championships.
Southern Oregon University sits at the top of the preseason poll with eight of the 12 first-place votes and 139 points. College of Idaho ranked second with 121 points and was followed by Corban, which was listed third with 117 points and two first-place votes.
Trinity Western was fourth in the poll with 112 points, while Eastern Oregon was fifth with 109 points and two first-place votes. Northwest was ranked sixth with 84 points, Oregon Tech was seventh at 70, Lewis-Clark State was eighth at 61, and Evergreen was ninth with 44 points.
Bushnell held the 10th spot in the poll with 28 points, just in front of Walla Walla in 11th with 27 points. Warner Pacific was 12th with 24 points.
