CLAREMONT, Calif. – Cian Monaghan has 8 kilometers to go in his college cross country career …
 
… and they'll be the biggest 8 kilometers he has ever run.
 
The University of Puget Sound senior secured a trip to the NCAA Division III national meet on Saturday morning with a solid sixth-place finish in the West Regionals
 
Coming off a title-winning run at the Northwest Conference meet two weeks ago, Monaghan was among the leaders from start to finish, completing his morning's work on the Pomona College Campus Course in 25 minutes, 25.0 seconds.
 
Monaghan was the only Logger running in the men's race. His top-7 finish guaranteed him a ticket to Spartanburg, South Carolina, as an individual qualifier. He'll race at 7:00 a.m. Pacific time next Saturday at Milliken Research Park.
 
This will be the third straight year that a UPS runner has made it into the men's nationals as an individual qualifier. Ben Kerr competed in both 2023 (153rd in Carlisle, Pennsylvania) and 2024 (123rd in Terre Haute, Indiana). Cian's older brother, Colin Monaghan, ran in the 2018, 2019, and 2021 nationals.
 
Monaghan was the first NWC runner across the finish line on Saturday. Caden Hildenbrand of George Fox was right behind in seventh in 25:27.6, and London Haley of Whitworth, who was second behind Monaghan at conference, placed 10th in 25:32.7.
 
After running side-by-side with the leaders through the first 2 kilometers on Saturday, Monaghan was in seventh place at two-mile mark in 10:03.3, right on the heels of sixth-place Haley (10:02.5).
 
Just beyond the 4K marker, Monaghan and Haley were dead even for sixth and seventh at 13:06.7, and they were now leading the chase pack as the top five runners had opened up a gap.
 
Past the 5K point, Monaghan had sixth place by himself at 17:09.3, though Haley was still right there in 17:10.1. From there, Monaghan started to stretch it out. He was 1.4 seconds ahead of Haley with just less than a mile to go.
 
As the finish line came in sight, Monaghan clearly had the No. 6 position all to himself as Haley had dropped back to 10th, and George Fox's Hildenbrand, who had moved up to seventh, was still two seconds in back of Monaghan.
 
Will Shuflit of Colorado College, who was either on the lead or solely in the lead most of the way, won in 24:50.0.
 
This was Monaghan's third West Regionals and was by far his best finish. He placed 80th as a freshman in 2022, did not race at the meet in 2023, and was 34th last year.
 
MOORE LEADS WOMEN TO 10TH
Sophomore Emily Moore ran to a 30th-place finish and led the Puget Sound women to 10th place as a team in the women's race.
 
Moore completed her 6 kilometers in 22 minutes, 58.1 seconds. Her finishing position was a huge jump from last year as a freshman when she placed 60th and was the team's No. 2 finisher.
 
The Loggers checked in with 288 points. That was an improvement of almost 100 points from last season, when they had 390 for 14th place. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, with all five of its scorers among the top 12 finishers on Saturday, won easily with 33 points.
 
Coming off a 12th-place finish at NWCs on Nov. 1, Moore was in the low 30s for most of Saturday's race.
 
Erin Schmidlin, a junior, placed 57th for Puget Sound in 23:53.9. Rounding out the scoring were junior Lydia Cocciolone 66th in 24:06.8, freshman Samantha Palm 69th in 24:13.0, and senior Ella Courtnage-Dyke 77th in 24:31.5.