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Knights Add Key Transfer Chris Garcia to Men's Track and Field/Cross Country

Knights Add Key Transfer Chris Garcia to Men's Track and Field/Cross Country

4/10/2020 8:47:00 PM

Portland, Ore. | The Warner Pacific University track and field/cross country team added another key transfer when Chris Garcia, who ran at Barlow HS, then Mt. Hood Community College and Concordia University, announced he was signing to run with the Knights starting next Fall. Garcia, who was a team captain at both Barlow and MHCC, has a 5K personal best of 15:50 and a 1500m personal best of 4:07. He adds more depth to a growing men's squad at WPU and has some history with a couple people at the school. His brother, Manny Garcia, ran for WPU from 2015-2018 and Cade Kooch, a fellow Barlow HS teammate, also just signed to run at WPU.
 
"It's cool that I get to run at the same school that my brother Manny did. My signing picture is in his old jersey, which was fun to do. I am also very excited to run with my past teammate Cade again. When he first started running in high school, when I was a senior, I gave him a lot of advice and guidance, which I hope helped him as a high school runner. Now, going into my junior collegiate season, I am hoping to set him up for another strong running career so I can see him be even faster than I have been throughout college," said Garcia.
 
When asked why he chose WPU, he responded, "I chose Warner Pacific because they gave me a helping hand when I was looking for a new school and home to finish out my collegiate running career and academic goals. Warner Pacific is also close to my home and in a beautiful area of Portland that I could not pass up."
 
Garcia, who is an exercise science major, was planning to finish at Concordia University when they announced their closure earlier this spring leaving him looking for a way to finish his degree and keep running. "It was very difficult to be put in a situation where your institution announces its' permanent closure after most application deadlines have passed and so late into the academic year. It felt like my home was being taken away from me and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I have high hopes Warner Pacific will feel like a new home for me and a stable institution for me to further my education. I was looking forward to competing this track season after not competing during the cross country season and being able to show how hard I had been training during that time to make this a good season. It was also very heartbreaking that I would not be able to spend the last season I had with my teammates and friends that I made at Concordia, which is why the opportunity to come run and finish at Warner Pacific was so great," said Garcia.
 
WPU Head Track and Field/Cross Country Coach Randy Dalzell was happy to provide that opportunity and reunite him with his old Barlow HS teammate as well. "When Chris talked to me about his situation at Concordia, I invited him to come visit and it seemed like it would be great for both our new team and him if he came over to finish here. He will have two years left to run cross country and track and it's just icing on the cake that his old teammate Cade Kooch from Barlow HS also signed to come run for us too. We are really excited to have both of them back running together and helping us build a great tradition here."
 
 
 
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