The Evergreen State College senior Alauna Carstens won the women’s 6-kilometer race at the Pacific Lutheran University Invitational in cross country on Saturday, Sept. 19 at the PLU Meadows XC Course.
Her winning time of 20 minutes, 50.9 seconds, broke the course record of 21.19 that she set in 2025. She took first place by 19.5 seconds, with Breanna Schmitt of George Fox University finishing second at 21:10.4.
Carstens helped Evergreen place eighth out of 19 teams in the women’s competition with 228 points. Also scoring for Evergreen were junior Dani Buttrell (36th with a personal record of 23:22.7), senior Madison Palek (64th at 24:12.1), junior Soleil Bianchi (81st at 24:56.4), and freshman Haley Huber (135th at 28:00.5).
Kekaimalino Halpern of Saint Martin’s finished in ninth place with a personal-best time of 22:32.9, and Violet Dixon took 65th at 24:18.8, a new PR. Samantha Schweppe came in 89th place at 25:16.4, and Kadence Merritt finished in 105th place at 25:56.3. Taylor Ames (117th at 26:21.8) and Charis Deitemeyer (122nd at 26:35.1) rounded out the Saint Martin’s women’s scorers, as the Saints finished 11th out of 19 teams.
Evergreen senior Max Baeder led the Evergreen men’s team with an eighth-place finish in the 8-kilometer race at 25:15.4. He was just one second out of seventh place and was out of the top five by 5.4 seconds.
The Evergreen men’s team finished sixth out of 12 teams in the open race. Joining Baeder as scorers for the men’s team were senior Josh Beam (23rd at 26:23.6), senior Evan Williams (35th at 27:01.4), sophomore Nathaniel Sanchez (54th at 28:24.7) and senior Will Niskanen (71st at 29:39.8).
Saint Martin’s had 11 runners in the men’s 8K race, led by Ryan Koenninger in 19th place at 26:12.5, a PR. Noe Ortega came in 32nd place with a time of 26:44.2. Matthias White (45th at 27:01.4) and Jake Beck (47th at 27:06.4) rounded out the Saint Martin’s top-50 finishers.
