SPOKANE, Wash. - Whitworth University ran to team victories over Gonzaga University at the Whitworth Short Course Invitational on Saturday afternoon.

Mayer won the women's race

Even though several regional teams were represented, only Whitworth and Gonzaga had full squads capable of posting team scores. The Pirate women won 16-47 behind the individual victory of Jo E Mayer. The Whitworth men overcame the individual win by Gonzaga's Colby Litzenberger to win 23-32 over the Bulldogs.

Mayer led a 1-4 Pirate finish in the 3,200 meter "sprint" of a cross country course. She finished in 12 minutes, 21 seconds. Jenna Cunningham was second (12:43), followed by Shannon Newth (12:44). Sara Wrightman was fourth (12:47) and Kaitlin Hildebrand (12:52) rounded out the Whitworth scoring in sixth place as the Pirates just missed a "perfect" score of 15 points.

Litzenberger overcame Whitworth's top three runners to win the men's 3.2 kilometer race in 10:06.00. The Pirates finished second through fourth behind Litzenberger. Dusty Caseria (10:12) was runner-up, Jacob Deitz (10:19) was third and Nick Gallagher (10:21) was fourth. Jamie Daroff was 7th in 10:35, while Collin Stewart was 9th (10:37) to round out the Pirate scoring.

Whitworth will get another weekend off before returning to competition on Saturday, October 6th at the Pacific Lutheran Invitational.