Fifteen student-athletes from EvCC competed against the best athletes in the heat of Spokane, WA in the NWAACC track championship on May 21 and 22.

The women Trojans finished with the least amount of points, while the men finished second to last, but it would be the experience of competing against the best that would be remembered most.

"It's fun just being out there with the fastest guys in the league," said men's captain Mitch Elias.

"These are some of the fastest kids in the nation for junior colleges and I was extremely nervous," said sophomore 4x400-meter, 800-meter and 5K-runner Jacob Wahlenmaier. "For about three hours before [the race] I was shaking with nerves."

Battling through the heat, the best competition and even the additional pressure of being the top seed, sophomore women's captain Megan Hall brought the high point of the championship with a first place finish in the 10K.

Hall was mixed in with the rest of the runners for most of the race until halfway through where she picked up the pace, and by the 37th minute she had built a 100-meter lead.

"I tried to hold back and be paitent," Hall said. "It was part of my strategy to give it my all for the last 5K."

"[Hall] ran a very smart, tactical race," Koenigs said. "Her 5K [personal record] was about 40 seconds faster than any other girl in the field, so for her to turn it into a 5K race and wait and be patient and just run away with it with 5K left worked really well."

Sophomore 5K and 10K runner Jessica Costigan also finished in the top eight in the race with a time of 43:12.01.

Hall accounted for 18 of the 24 points the Everett women's team collected.

On the men's side, sophomore 5K and 4x400-meter runner Tyler Nilson entered the 5K race as the fourth seed with his personal record of 15:23.82.

Nilson struggled, ending with a time of 16:01, but still took fifth place.

"[Nilson] was our most improved on the men's side this year," Koenigs said. "Nilson dropped 39 seconds off his 5K [personal record] this year and he wouldn't be in consideration for top two or three in that race without his improvement."

Elias, like Nilson, went into his race with high expectations, but as the number three seed. Elias just wasn't able to keep up with the leaders and ended up taking fifth in the race.

"I just wanted to win the race, but my muscles just locked up a little bit," Elias said.

Spokane had five runners participate in the 3K Steeplechase and Elias said some of their runners blocked him off.

"They had like a three-man block while their two faster runners went out ahead," Elias said. "So it was hard to get past that, but I think I did all I could."

Nilson and Elias each collected four points, freshman Andy Wagner got three points for his sixth place finish in the 10K, and the 4x400 team earned a point for their eighth place finish.