Led by All-America individual performances from Emmanuel Roudolff-Levisse, Jeff Thies, and Nick Hauger, the Portland Pilots cross country program added to its remarkable history by finishing second as a team at the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday. Portland entered the race ranked No. 4 nationally, but trailed only NCAA champion Northern Arizona at the finish line of the 10K race. NAU finished with 74 team points followed by Portland (127), BYU (165), Stanford (221) and Arkansas (259). It marks the second podium finish for Rob Conner’s program, which made its 18th team appearance at the national meet. Portland’s previous best was a third-place showing in 2014.
Roudolff-Levisse, a sophomore who won the NCAA West Regional last weekend, was Portland’s top individual finisher in 11th-place with a time of 29:38.90. Thies, a senior, was on his heels in 14th-place, while the junior Hauger closed hard to come in 26th place overall. The trio joins 15 other Pilots to earn NCAA Cross Country All-America honors. It is the first time in program history that three Pilots have earned All-America status in the same year.
The runner-up finish caps a phenomenal cross country season that featured Portland starting the season ranked outside of the top 20, placing second at the prestigious Nuttycombe Invitational, earning its highest in-season national ranking (No. 3) ever, and claiming the second NCAA West Regional title (1993). Conner, the five-time West Region Coach of the Year, has been at the helm of Portland for 28 years and has now has guided the Pilots to eight Top 10 finishes at nationals.