WSU CROSS COUNTRY HOSTS ALUMNI "RUST-BUSTER" MEET
The Washington State men's and women's cross country teams open the 2017 season Sept. 1, with the WSU Alumni meet at the Colfax Golf Club in Colfax, Wash...shorter distances to start the season and shake off the "rust" of summer training and acommodate more of the alumni runners...men's 6,000m race is set to begin at 5 p.m. with the women's 4,000m race set for 5:30 p.m...this is the site of the 2019 NCAA West Region Cross Country Championships and the 2015 Pac-12 Cross Country Championships...WSU trains there several times a week...results will be posted at wsucougars.com, when available. 

COUGARS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
The Washington State men's cross country team earned a No.11 ranking in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Preseason poll published Aug.29, 2017...No. 11 ranking is the highest since 1998 when the Cougars, led by distance legend, Olympian and WSU Athletics Hall of Fame member Bernard Lagat, was ranked No. 10 in the preseason poll...also the first time WSU has been in the top-30 at the start of the season since 2012...only three other Pac-12 schools rank higher in the 2017 men's preseason poll: No. 2 Stanford, No. 5 Colorado and No. 9 Oregon...the 2017 Preseason FloXC Rankings places the Cougar men 19th nationally...the WSU men's team is ranked No. 3 in the USTFCCCA West Region preseason rankings, behind Stanford and Oregon...WSU women's team is not ranked in the top 15 for the West Region in the Aug. 28 rankings...for complete men's and women's team national and regional rankings see pages 2 and 3 of this release.

COUGARS TO HOST 2019 NCAA WEST REGION XC CHAMPIONSHIPS
Washington State will host the 2019 NCAA Cross Country West Regional Friday, Nov. 15, at the Colfax Golf Club at Colfax, Wash...this will mark the first time WSU will host an NCAA Cross Country Regional Championship...Cougars hosted the 2015 Pac12 Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships at the Colfax Golf Club and practice on the course several times a week.

ABOUT THE 2017 COUGAR MEN
The 2017 Cougar men's cross country team is packed with experience with depth as well as youthful talent. Led by the 30th-place finish of Michael Williams, the No. 18 WSU men's cross country team finished 14th at the 2016 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships. This is the highest Cougar finish in 32 years when the WSU men took seventh place at the 1984 championship. Williams earned All-America honors (top 40 individuals), becoming the first Cougar since Bernard Lagat, with a seventh-place finish, and Eric Kamau, with a 29th-place finish, in 1998 when the WSU men finished 18th. The Cougar men's squad received at-large bids for the 2015 and 2016 NCAA meets. WSU runners with two years of national experience returning for 2017 include: senior Sam Levora, juniors Nathan Tadesse, Chandler Teigen, Paul Ryan, and Nathan Wadhwani. Another squad member, Justin Janke, had a memorable freshman year with his fourth-place finish that led the USA U20 Men's team to the team gold medal at the 13th Annual North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Cross Country Championships in March. One freshman Coach Phipps noted as having a great high school career and training very well in the early season is Matthew Watkins. Watkins, a Footlocker national finalist and All-America cross country selection.

ABOUT THE 2017 COUGAR WOMEN
Senior Devon Bortfeld was the Cougar women's team leader both on and off the course in 2016. She returns for her senior season with a handful of Cougars Top 10 records from last indoor and outdoor seasons: 3rd in 3000m (9:22.54i), School Record for Indoor 5000m and 3rd overall (16:16.42i), and 4th in the 3k steeplechase (10:23.28). She was the top WSU finisher at both the Pac-12 (37th) and NCAA West Region (38th) Championships. Joining Bortfeld with a strong chance to reach the NCAAs as individuals in 2017 is junior Vallery Korir, a transfer to WSU last January. Korir is an accomplished racer and set the school record for the 10k (33:58.17) and climbed into 7th in the 3000m (9:30.98) and 10th in the 5000m (16:36.40) in WSU all-time rankings. Katherine Dittmann etched her name in the WSU records with her Freshman School Record and 9th-best overall 10k time of 36:33.54 and with fellow junior Josie Brown should be consistent scorers. Sophomores Morgan Lash, Tracy Myers, Jenaya Pynn and Desi Stinger are expected to have strong cross country seasons after a solid year of training. Freshman Kiyena Beatty from Great Oak HS from the nationally-recognized program in Temecula, Calif., looks to have a good chance to join the Cougar women's scorers this year.

40TH ANNIVERSARY OF WSU WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
The 2017 season marks the 40th anniversary of the WSU Women's Cross Country program...1977 marked the first Fall of scored team events...the Cougars, coached by Dot Dobbie, finished 11th at the Northwest College Women's Sports Association (NCWSA).