PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS NEXT FOR WSU CROSS COUNTRY
Washington State women's and No. 15 men's teams compete at the Pac-12 Conference Cross Country Championships Friday, Oct. 28, at the Randolph North Golf Course in Tucson...all Pac-12 schools participate but Oregon State, Utah and USC have only women's teams...women's 6,000m race begins at 9:30 a.m...men's 8,000m race begins at 10:30 a.m...schools enter 10 runners per gender but only the top five count in team scoring (by place) with lowest team score winning...Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the meet Mon., Oct. 31 at 6 p.m. with Jim Watson, Dwight Stones and Lewis Johnson announcing.

WAYNE PHIPPS, DIRECTOR  WSU CROSS COUNTRY/TRACK & FIELD
Wayne Phipps (University of British Columbia '91) begins his third season with the Washington State cross country program...he became the 15th men's coach and the second coach for the combined men's and women's program at WSU on July 1, 2014, after 19 years at the University of Idaho...Phipps led the 2015 Cougar men's program to a sixth-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships, a fourth-place finish at the NCAA West Regionals, and an at-large berth to finish 26th out of 31 teams at the NCAA Championships...during the 2016 Track & Field season, a pair of Cougs earned second-team All-America honors...Cougars tallied 25 new entries into the WSU all-time top ten records...while at Idaho, Phipps was honored 14 times as a conference coach of the year and led the Vandals to a record 16 total conference titles.

ALLIX POTRATZ-LEE, ASSISTANT COACH
Allix Potratz-Lee joined the WSU track and field coaching staff in July 2014 after an outstanding career as a student-athlete and coach at the University of Idaho...member of the cross country/track and field coaching staff in 2010 as an assistant to Wayne Phipps, working with the distance corps...women's cross country team won WAC team titles in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.. she was a five-time WAC champion, a 10-time first-team all-WAC honoree and a two-time ESPN/CoSIDA Academic All-American...she helped Idaho cross country capture the 2005, 2007 XC team titles, and claimed the 2008 individual WAC cross country crown.

COUGARS IN THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
A strong ninth-place finish at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational Oct. 14, the highest finish by a non-ranked team among a highly-competitive field that had 19 top-ranked teams and another six teams receiving votes, propelled the WSU men's cross country team to a 15th ranking in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Week 5 Oct. 18 national poll after "Receiving Votes" in the previous poll...the WSU men are ranked 17th in the Oct. 17 Flotrack Saucony Flo50 rankings...WSU's men's cross country team has been ranked as high as 10th in the preseason poll of 1998 when the Cougars placed 18th at the NCAA Championships...more recently, WSU was ranked 20th for two weeks in 2009 and fell to 27th at the end of that season but finished 21st at the NCAA Championships...WSU was ranked 25th in 2015 Week 7, the first national ranking under Coach Phipps...WSU was an at-large team at the NCAA Championships where the Cougar men finished 26th out of 31 teams.

COUGAR MEN ENTERED FOR PAC-12 XC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Jake Finney    So.    Post Falls, Idaho (Lake City HS)
Finished Sundodger 18th overall/9th on team...at Washington Invite 19th overall/1st on team...at Inland Empire Champs finished 3rd overall/2nd on team...2015: Pac-12s 5th on team/46th overall; NCAA West Regionals 6th on team/95th overall; NCAA Championships 7th on team/223rd overall.

Jackson Haselnus    Rs-Jr.    Gresham, Ore. (Barlow HS)
Finished Sundodger 13th overall/8th on team...at Washington Invite 26th overall/2nd on team...at Inland Empire Champs 5th overall/3rd on team.

Justin Janke    Fr.    Spokane, Wash. (North Central HS 
Finished Sundodger 9th overall/6th on team... at Notre Dame Joe Piane Invite 108th overall/8th on team...individual winner at Inland Empire Champs.

Sam Levora    Jr.    Sandpoint, Idaho (Sandpoint HS)
Finished Sundodger 5th overall/2nd on team...at Notre Dame Joe Piane Invite 36th overall/3rd on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invite 68th overall/4th on team...2015: Pac-12s 3rd on  team/32nd overall; NCAA West Regionals 3rd on team/32nd overall; NCAA Championships 3rd on team/151st overall.

Paul Ryan    So.    Moscow, Idaho (Logos HS) 
Finished Sundodger 10th overall/7th on team...at Notre Dame Joe Piane Invite 182nd overall/5th on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invite 158th overall/6th on team...did not compete at 2015 Pac-12 Champs.

Nathan Tadesse    So.    Surrey, British Columbia, Canada (N. Surrey Sr.)
Finished Sundodger 8th overall/5th on team...at Notre Dame Joe Piane Invite 99th overall/7th on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invite 160th overall/7th on team...2015: Pac-12s 7th on team/70th overall; NCAA West Regionals 4th team/37th overall; NCAA Championships 6th on team/193rd overall. 

Chandler Teigen    So.    Anatone, Wash. (Asotin HS)
Finished Sundodger 6th overall/3rd on team...fell during race at Notre Dame Joe Piane Invite so finished 95th overall/6th on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invite 67th overall/3rd on team...2015: Pac-12s 4th on team/40th overall; NCAA West Regionals 5th team/51st overall; NCAA     Championships 5th on team/1823rd overall.

Nathan Wadhwani    So.    Maple Ridge, B.C., Canada (Fox Secondary)
Finished Sundodger 7th overall/4th on team...at Notre Dame Joe Piane Invite 48th overall/4th on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invite 110th overall/5th on team...2015: Pac-12s 6th on team/57th overall; NCAA West Regionals 7th on team/107th overall; NCAA Championships 4th on team/174th overall.

John Whelan    Sr.    Etna, Calif. (Etna HS)
Team captain...ran unattached for Sundodger 4th place finish...at Notre Dame Joe Piane Invite, led Cougars with 8th place overall finish...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invite 23rd overall/2nd on team...2015: Pac-12s 1st on team/9th overall; NCAA West Regionals 1st on team/2nd overall; NCAA Championships 2nd on team/113th overall.

Michael Williams    Jr.    Richland, Wash. (Richland HS)
Finished Sundodger 2nd overall/1st on team...at Notre Dame Joe Piane Invite 16th overall/2nd on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invite 15th overall/1st on team...2015: Pac-12s 2nd on team/12th overall; NCAA West Regionals 2nd on team/3rd overall; NCAA Championships 1st on team/57th overall.

COUGAR WOMEN ENTERED FOR PAC-12 XC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Devon Bortfeld    Jr.    Sammamish, Wash. (Eastlake HS)
Team captain...Sundodger finish 12th overall/1st on team...at Washington Invite 15th overall/1st on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Open 4th overall/1st on team...2015: Pac-12s 2nd on team/49th overall; NCAA West Regionals 2nd on team/53rd overall.

Josie Brown    So.    Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (Coeur d'Alene HS)
Sundodger finish 25th  overall/5th on team...at Washington Invite 68th overall/8th on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Open 34th overall/3rd on team...2015: Pac-12s 10th on team/102nd overall.

Katherine Dittmann    So.    Snohomish, Wash. (Glacier Peak HS)
Sundodger finish 35th overall/8th on team...at Washington Invite 59th overall/6th on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Open 62nd overall/6th on team...2015: Pac-12s 6th on team/88th overall; NCAA West Regionals 5th on team/99th overall.

Melissa Hruska    Fr.    Snoqualmie, Wash. (Mount Si HS)
Sundodger finish19th overall/4th on team...at Washington Invite 52nd overall/5th on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Open 67th overall/7th on team.

Morgan Lash    Fr.    Anchorage, Alaska (South Anchorage HS)
Sundodger finish18th overall/3rd on team...at Washington Invite 45th overall/3rd on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Open 35th overall/4th on team.

Tracy Myers    Rs-Fr.    Beamsville, Ontario, Canada (Grimsby)
Sundodger finish 32nd overall/7th on team...at Washington Invite 67th overall/7th on team...at Inland Empire Champs 5k, 10th overall/1st on team.

Steffie Pavey    Sr.    Oldtown, Idaho (Priest River Lamanna HS)
Sundodger finish 48th overall/11th on team...at Washington Invite 80th overall.12th on team...at Inland Empire Champs 5k, 20th overall/2nd on team...2015: Pac-12s 4th on team/74th overall; NCAA West Regionals 6th on team/145th overall.

Jenaya Pynn    Rs-Fr.    Nanaimo, B.C., Canada (Wellington)
At Washington Invite finished 50th overall/4th on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Open 46th overall/5th on team.

Desi Stinger    Fr.    Temecula, Calif. (Great Oak HS)
Sundodger finish 26th overall/6th on team...at Washington Invite 76th overall/11th on team. 

Morgan Willson    Sr.    Colfax, Wash. (Colfax HS)
Sundodger finish 13th overall/2nd on team...at Washington Invite 29th overall/2nd on team...at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Open 18th overall/2nd on team...2015: Pac-12s 3rd on team/54th overall; NCAA West Regionals 3rd on team/66th overall.