Nov. 13, 2010

Complete Results

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- The Washington State men's cross country team finished 14th and the women's team finished 16th at the NCAA West Regional Cross Country Championships held at the Springfield Country Club Saturday morning. The temperature at race time was 45 degrees.

Justin Englund, a junior from Federal Way, Wash., took 25th place in the men's 10,000 meters in a time of 30 minutes, 39.86 seconds. The other WSU men and their finishes include sophomore Andrew Kimpel 64th (31:16.87), redshirt freshman Andrew Gonzales 102nd (31:48.20), junior Jono Lafler 104nd (31:50.78), senior David Hickerson 115th (32:00.74), and sophomore Matt Cronrath 140th (32:28.02).

Trevor Dunbar of the University of Portland won the men's individual title in a time of 29:57.89, and Arizona's Stephen Sambu was the runner-up in 29:57.95. Oregon won the men's team title with 63 with Stanford finishing second with 65. The rest of the top five included California 78, Portland 131, and Arizona State 179. The WSU men scored 396 for 14th among the 25 teams.

"Justin Englund ran exceptionally well and Andrew Kimpel had been sick for the last two weeks and I thought he ran very, very tough," Cougar Head Coach Pete Julian said. "Those two ran well but for some reason this is still a meet that we struggle at and we need to figure out why. Our men were in a good position through two miles and it is frustrating to see teams finish ahead of us that we know we can beat."

Ruby Roberts, a freshman from Kingston, Wash., was the top Cougar woman to cross the 6,000 meters finish line in 42nd place in a time of 21:06.58. The other WSU women and their places included sophomore Caroline Austin 96th (21:53.24), freshman Allison Clark 104th (21:57.95), freshman Ramona Morshead 124th (22:15.08), redshirt freshman Courtney Zalud 132nd (22:21.78), junior Emily Farrar 143rd (22:26.96), and senior Ashlee Wall Eskelsen 169th (22:50.85).

Oregon's Jordan Hasay, the 2010 Pacific-10 Conference champion, claimed the women's race individual title in a time of 20:01.90, with California's Deborah Maier the runner-up (20:06.81). The Washington women won the team title with 73, followed by Oregon 76, Stanford 86, Arizona 90, while California and UC Santa Barbara tied for fifth with 159 each. WSU's score of 486 was 16th among the 33 women's teams.

"No question that this was the women's best race of the year," Julian said. "They ran incredibly well. Not having Sara Bobbe here (illness), a strong, solid number three for us, all the other girls really stepped up. They competed really well and for them to finish 16th was a great day for them. Our goal was to beat Oregon State and we did that. For Rudy to finish 42nd at an NCAA Regional meet, that is pretty impressive for a true freshman.

This race concluded the WSU cross country teams' season. The NCAA Cross Country Championships are Nov. 22, in Terre Haute, Ind.