LEWISTON, Idaho – The Vandal cross country teams hosted the Idaho Orchards Cross Country Invite on Saturday afternoon in Lewiston. The women won the meet, with Malaina Thacker taking first, while the men were second.

"I thought it was a great day. This year is about opportunities and it's nice to see another opportunity for the kids to compete," said Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Tim Cawley. "I'm glad these other teams came down. They're solid teams and they ran great too. I'm excited to see how things go at conference in a few weeks."

"I thought our women's team ran outstanding. They ran with confidence, they were relaxed, and they're in a great spot for conference coming up which is exciting. They won the race beating some good solid teams. I'm looking forward to see where they're going to go from here in the next couple of weeks," said Cawley.

The Vandal women placed first with 31 points and won the Battle of the Palouse, narrowly defeating Washington State, who scored 38 points. Montana was third and Eastern Washington took fourth.

Individually, Thacker won the 5k race in 16:53.1, seven seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Maya Kobylanski was fifth in 17:13.3, while Nell Baker (17:25.4) and Faith Dilmore (17:30.7) were seventh and eighth, respectively. Jolene Whiteley finished in 10th place (17:40.3) and Leah Holmgren was 18th (18:22.1). Mia Hill (20:14.9) rounded out the point scorers in 31st place.

"On the men's side we were a little thin. We held a couple guys out just to get them ready for conference and make sure everyone's healthy. But the guys who ran put their heart into it and ran great. They took the opportunity and tried to do the best they could with it. It was exciting to watch there too. They ran their hardest," said Cawley.

For the men, Montana was first with 27 points, while the Vandals were second with 47 points scored with five runners. Eastern Washington took third with 60 points. Individually, the Eagles' Carter Ledwith won the 8k race in 25:07.2.

The Vandals were paced by Shea Mattson, who finished third in a time of 25:29.5. Gabriel Dinnel took fifth in 25:37.0. Ryan Kline (25:57.6) was 12th and Sam Fulbright (26:12.2) was 14th, while Timo Dohm (26:50.5) placed 19th.

The Vandals will next be in action at the Big Sky Championship on February 27.