NO. 18 COUGAR MEN ADVANCE TO NCAA XC CHAMPIONSHIPS
The No. 18 Washington State men's team will compete at the NCAA Cross Country Championships Saturday, Nov. 19, at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports in Terre Haute, Ind...men's 10k race starts at 9 a.m. PT...this is the second consecutive season, the WSU men's team, under the direction of third-year coach Wayne Phipps, has earned an at-large bid to compete at the NCAA Championships...six of the seven runners competed at the 2015 national championships where WSU finished 26th out of 31 teams.

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
The WSU men's cross country team finished in fifth-place finish at both the Pac-12 Championships and at the NCAA West Region is ranked 18th in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Week 7 Nov. 14 national poll...the WSU men are ranked 19th in the Nov. 13 Flotrack Saucony Flo50 ranking...the highest 2016 ranking for the Cougar men was 15th in the Oct. 18 poll...historically, 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 NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS 

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...at Pac-12 Championships 1st on team/15th overall...at NCAA West Region 10k finished 4th on team/36th overall (30:24.7)...2015: Pac-12s 3rd on team/32nd overall; NCAA West Region 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...at Pac-12 Championships 6th on team/40th overall...at NCAA West Region 10k finished 6th on team/65th overall (30:58.6)...did not compete at 2015 Pac-12, NCAA West Region or NCAA Championships. 

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...at Pac-12 Championships 5th on team/38th overall...at NCAA West Region 10k finished 7th on team/73rd overall (31:10.7)...2015: Pac-12s 7th on team/70th overall; NCAA West Region 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...at Pac-12 Championships 7th on team/41st overall...at NCAA West Region 10k finished 3rd on team/27th overall (30:10.9)...2015: Pac-12s 4th on team/40th overall; NCAA West Region 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...at Pac-12 Championships 4th on team/27th overall...at NCAA West Region 10k finished 5th on team/47th overall (30:39.0)...2015: Pac-12s 6th on team/57th overall; NCAA West Region 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...at Pac-12 Championships 3rd on team/26th overall...at NCAA West Region 10k second on team with 18th place finish (30:029.5)...All-Region honors...2015: Pac-12s 1st on team/9th overall; NCAA West Region 1st on team/2nd overall...All-Region honors; 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...at Pac-12 Championships 2nd on team/24th overall...at NCAA West Region 10k led team with 17th place finish (29:59.8)...All-Region honors...2015: Pac-12s 2nd on team/12th overall; NCAA West Region 2nd on team/3rd overall...All-Region honors; NCAA Championships 1st on team/57th overall.