Western Washington University's Katelyn Steen and Dak Riek each placed third in their respective individual standings with the Viking women winning and the men finishing a strong second at the Saint Martin's University Cross Country Invitational Saturday, Sept. 22, on SMU's campus.

The WWU women scored 27 points, and second-place Seattle Pacific scored 48 points in the five-team field.

Victoria won the eight-team men's race with 18 points, placing six runners among the top seven. WWU was second with 42 and Alaska Fairbanks was third with 95.

Victoria's Ryan Cassidy led a field of 83 men's runners, completing the eight kilometer course in 25:41. Club Northwest's Ruth Perkins took the women's title with a time of 22:08 over six kilometers in a field of 53.

Steen placed third for the second straight week, this time with a 22:29 clocking.

Also scoring points for the WWU women were Austen Reiter, Arielle Walton, Haley O'Connor and Maddy Jalbert.

Riek finished in 25:48. Also finishing among the top 10 for the Vikings were Tyler Cannon, Tanner Boyd and Dylan Peterson.

"It was a good solid race for both teams," said WWU coach Pee Wee Halsell. "We had almost everyone competing except for Chip Jackson, Zachary Bursell and Taylor Guenther, who we held out."

Jackson won the men's open division at the Sundodger last week and Bursell, a transfer from the University of Portland, was second to lead the Vikings at the Central Washington Invitational. Guenther won the women's race at the CWU meet and placed 24th at the Sundodger.

The Vikings take a week off before the 39th Annual WWU Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 6.