Washington State University Athletics
Cross Country Takes on Top-Ranked Foes in Seattle
October 03, 2015 | Cross Country
SEATTLE -- In an early preview of the NCAA West Regional Cross Country Championships, the WSU men took eighth and the Cougar women were ninth place in a crowded field of nationally-ranked squads Friday afternoon at the Washington Invitational at Jefferson Park Golf Course, the site of the NCAA West Regional meet, Nov. 13.
WSU junior John Whelan, from Etna, Calif., held an early lead on the 8,000m course and went on to finish 13th in a time of 23 minutes 34.4 seconds. Cougar men scored in the following order: 13-33-39-48-56. The next four WSU men scoring Friday and their overall places were: Michael Williams (35th - 23:57.0), Nathan Wadhwani (41st - 24:02.9), Candler Teigen (51st - 24:09.2), and Jake Finney (61st - 24:17.3). Other Cougar men racing at the UW Invite and their overall places were: Nathan Tadesse (72nd - 24:33.0), Paul Ryan (92nd - 25:12.7), Kyler Little (93rd - 25:13.9), and Reid Muller (103rd - 26:14.3).
Edward Cheserek from Oregon, won the men's individual title with a time of 23:15.4. No. 5 Oregon won the men's team title with 52 followed by No. 2 Stanford with 69. The other team scores were: 3. No. 12 BYU 70, 4. No. 11 UCLA 117, 5. Air Force 136, 6. Washington 146, 7. Portland 174, 8. Washington State 189, 9. Gonzaga 205, 10. Seattle U 332, and 11. Eastern Washington 333.
“We had some really good individual performances led by an amazing run by John Whelan who positioned himself very well throughout the race,” WSU Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Wayne Phipps said. “John has been a great leader for us this whole season and this was a little bit of a breakthrough for him. We had a couple top guys struggle with some illness which results in us finishing a little lower than we had hoped.”
Senior CharLee Linton (Shoreline, Wash.) was the first Cougar to cross the 6,000m course finish line in a time of 20:25.8 (34th). The scoring order for WSU women Friday was 34-29-47-56-58, and the following women scored (with their overall places): Devon Bortfeld (43rd - 20:49.2), Morgan Willson (52nd - 20:56.7), Emily Dwyer (62nd - 21:21.1), and Steffie Pavey (65th - 21:31.5). Other Cougars racing in Seattle were: Anisa Allaet (76th - 21:44.0), Alexys Garcia (85th - 21:50.5), Katherine Dittmann (85th - 21:58.2), and Amanda Henderson (106th - 22:40.3).
Stanford's Aisling Cuffe won the women's individual title with a time of 19:41.0. No. 5 Oregon won the women's team title with 36 followed by No. 15 Washington (59), No. 4 Stanford (60) and No. 24 BYU (77). The rest of the women's team scores were: 5. Air Force 143, 6. Gonzaga 200, 7. Eastern Washington 205, 8. Portland 221, 9. Washington State 234; 10. UCLA 274, 11. Oregon State and 12. Seattle U 314.
“The women ran very well with every person running a 6k-best but we were too conservative and we could not quite make up that deficit,” Phipps said.
The next race for the Cougar harriers will be October 17 at either the PreNational meet in Louisville, Ky., or at the Inland Northwest Classic in Lewiston, Idaho.
Players Mentioned
