TACOMA, Wash. - Nick Gallagher raced to victory at the Pacific Lutheran Invitational on Saturday, leading Whitworth University's men to a second place finish in the team standings. The Pirate women took third place in the meet.

Gallagher won the men's race at PLU

Gallagher (Fr., Bedford, Iowa) ran the eight kilometer course in 25:08.81, defeating Braxton Jackson of Western Oregon by 6.5 seconds. Jacob Deitz (Sr., Mead, Wash.) was fifth in 25:30.61, while Dusty Caseria (So., Bellingham, Wash.) was 7th in 25:44.20. Jeff Forsyth (Jr., SeaTac, Wash.) took 14th place in 26:18.33 and Jamie Daroff (Jr., Clearfield, Utah) rounded out the Whitworth scoring in 20th place (26:39.11).

NCAA Division II Western Oregon won the men's meet with 30 points, while Whitworth scored 47. The rest of the spots were filled by Northwest Conference schools: Puget Sound (69), Whitman (94), Lewis & Clark (129) and Pacific Lutheran (172).

The final women's scores were: Western Oregon 44, Whitman 54, Whitworth 65, Pacific Lutheran 79, Lewis & Clark 106, Puget Sound 190.

Jo E Mayer (So., Spokane, Wash.) was 9th in 22:47.14, followed closely by Sara Wrightman (Fr., Bend, Ore.) in 10th place with a time of 23:04.44 on the six kilometer course. Amanda Phillips of L&C won in 21:27.39. Jenna Cunningham (Jr., Central Point, Ore.) took 14th place in 23:12.36. Emily Morehouse (Jr., Bellevue, Wash.) and Shannon Newth (Sr., Havre, Wash.) finished in 18th (23:27.20) and 19th (23:27.49) places, respectively.

Next weekend the Pirates will stay close to home, competing at the Bigfoot Invitational hosted by the Community Colleges of Spokane.