The majority of the twenty-something runners that make up the Pomona-Pitzer men’s cross country program have competed in their last race of the year, but the top seven men have at least one race left to run, and for every runner, coach, alum, fan, and TSL reader the season continues on in spirit.

The men ran well at the SCIAC Championships on Oct. 30, but their efforts disappointingly earned them only a second place finish behind rivals CMS, scoring 57 points to the Stags’ impressive 32.

The evening after the meet, the Sagehens donned Viking garb with widely varying degrees of believability, and, with the absolutely essential and much-appreciated help of this reporter’s sister, Abby Enscoe (a “structural engineer”), the team built a stunning Viking ship—15 feet long, its frame consisting of gnarled branches and scrap two-by-fours, a flag fluttering proudly from its mast. Unfortunately, this is entirely irrelevant and was not factored into the standings.

The Sagehens’ boat-building aside, the team performed well enough for Pomona and Pitzer to send them on painfully early morning flights today to Portland, OR, where the seven athletes and their coach (along with women’s coach Alicia Freese PO ’10 and SCIAC runner of the year Annie Lydens PO ’13) will locate a rental car and head south along I-5 to scenic Salem for the Division III West Region Championship, hosted by Willamette University.

The race is one of eight regional meets held on Nov. 13 around the country, each of which serves as a qualifier for the Division III National Championship on Nov. 20—hosted by Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. 32 teams qualify for the national meet, along with 64 individuals—the top eight from each region not on one of the qualifying teams. Two teams qualify from each region automatically, while the remaining 16 spots are at-large bids—determined based on a team’s placing at regionals and their performances throughout the season. In recent years, the West Region has sent a total of three men’s teams to nationals.

In 2009, the meet was hosted by Pomona-Pitzer and took place on the same course on which this season’s P-P Invitational was held on Oct. 2. At the West Region meet one year ago, Jackson Brainerd of Colorado College edged out Eric Kleinsasser of Occidental College by 0.16 seconds for the win in a time of 25:26.65. On the team side, CMS won with 50 points followed by Willamette in second with 64 and Colorado College, rounding out the qualifying teams, in third with 93. PPXC finished fifth with 121.

At Nationals, Brainerd was the highest placing West Region runner in 18th, while the three qualifying teams finished in the same order respective to one another, in 15th, 20th, and 25th overall. CMS’s team result was the best from a West Region team since Willamette’s fifth place finish in 2004. PPXC hasn’t sent a men’s team since 2005 (when they finished 20th); the last Harrier to qualify individually was Torrey Olson PO ’09 in 2008; and the last to earn All-American honors (top-35 in the nation) was Will Leer PO ’07 in 2006.

Which teams and which individuals will place where at nationals remains to be seen. Currently, Whitworth University is ranked 15th in the nation, Colorado 19th, CMS 24th, and Willamette 29th. Before the race in Iowa, though, the Harriers must, of course, qualify at the one in Salem tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. The top three teams by ranking in the region are, in order, Whitworth, Colorado, and CMS, with PPXC coming in at #6.

The results, however, could turn out quite differently, and teams often end up placing significantly above or below where they are predicted to place. Besides the simple fact that rankings are subjective, as well as that each race is different, a meet like this one—the one that determines whose season is over and whose will continue a week later in Iowa—can have impossible-to-foresee effects.

While the West Region Championship may not have some of the top runners that a large, early-season invitational with schools from all divisions might have, it consists of a large group of athletes with very similar abilities and very similar goals. This means that teams—both those expected to qualify easily and those with nothing to lose—have the potential to place much higher or much lower than expected with a few particularly great (or poor) performances.

Last year, although only seven runners broke 26 minutes on the P-P course, 24 runners ran between 26 and 27 minutes, and less than a minute separated the race’s 11th and 35th placing runners. In other words, a breakthrough race or rough day for one or two individuals on a team can dramatically change the meet’s outcome and thus which teams will head to Iowa in just under a week.

Teams and individuals will arrive in Salem from Washington, Oregon, California, and Colorado throughout the day to preview the course on which they are to race tomorrow morning. Although some runners’ chances are more realistic than others’, everyone is hoping to earn a ticket to equally-scenic Waverly for the opportunity to run against the nation’s top Division III cross country runners. By around 11:30 a.m. tomorrow morning, we’ll know exactly who those runners will be.