Oct. 14, 2011
Complete Results
SPOKANE, Wash. - Andrew Kimpel was the individual men's winner and led the No. 20 Washington State men's cross country team to first place in the Inland Northwest Classic at Spokane Falls CC Friday evening.
Kimpel, a junior from Spokane, covered the 8,000m course in a course-record time of 24 minutes, 0.2 seconds. The men beat out eight other teams from around the Northwest in their final race before the Pac-12 Conference Championships to be held in two weeks in Arizona.
Right behind Kimpel was second-place finisher and senior teammate Jono Lafler, who finished with a time of 24:01.4. Andrew Gonzales (24:27.9) and Justin Englund (24:29.0) took the fourth and fifth place spots, respectively. Rounding out the Cougars' scoring lineup was Lee George at eighth (24:43.0) with Drew Jordan the next WSU man at ninth place (24:44.2). A total of 14 men bettered the course record time including the top six Cougs as well as David Hickerson (10th), running unattached, and Todd Wakefield (11th).
The WSU men's team scored 17 points, winning by a wide margin over second place Gonzaga (73).
"It was a good day for the men," WSU Head Coach Pete Julian said. "Andrew Kimpel won and he has run incredibly well and made amazing progress over the past year and is emerging to become a top collegiate athlete. I am happy for Andrew's success because he has worked very hard. I think we are starting to find our fifth spot and sixth man in Lee George and Drew Jordan; they have made a big jump in performance level and made improvements in an area where we need the most help."
The Cougar women's team ran the 5000m course at less than full strength, missing sophomore Ruby Roberts who has led the Cougar women in every race this year, and Allison Clark. The Washington State women took third place out of the nine competing teams, scoring 61 points and finishing behind Gonzaga (51) and Montana (54). The women's winner was Gonzaga's Lindsey Drake, who ran a course record time of17:17.3.
The next race for the Cougar men's and women's cross country teams will be the highly-anticipated Pac-12 Conference Championships to be held October 29 at Litchfield Park, Arizona.
