MADISON, Wis. – The Washington State women's and men's cross country programs competed at one of the most prestigious events of the year, the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational Friday morning, where sophomore
Amir Ado posted a 20th overall finish on the men's side.
WSU MEN
The men's squad, currently ranked ninth in the west region, finished 30th overall Friday morning, totaling 717 points.
Sophomore
Amir Ado continued to be the leading force for the Cougars, placing 20th overall in the race with a time of 23:58.2. Ado only continued to improve throughout the event, moving up from 34th place to 27th, and finally surged ahead into the top 25 with a 20th overall finish.
Reid Muller crossed the finish line in 114th place overall with a time of 24.42.9, and was able to jump ahead 14 spots during the last stretch of the race as well.
Zach Stallings shortly followed fellow teammate Mueller with a time of 25:18.3 and placed 186th overall. Rounding out the remainder of the Cougars was
Matthew Watkins with a time of 25:26.5,
Justin Janke at 26:02.2, and finally
Sam Griffith in with a time of 26:11.6.
Northern Arizona, the number one ranked team in the country took home first place with 59 total points, followed by Stanford with 133 points, and in third was Tulsa with 175 total points on the day.
WSU WOMEN
The Washington State women's program, combined for 847 points in the race, finishing 34th overall at the Nuttycombe Invitational.
Leading the way for WSU on the day was sophomore
Zorana Grujic, placing 110th overall with a time of 21:21.4. Grujic made great strides throughout the race as she improved, and moved up 73 total placements in this contest, including moving up 31 spots down the last stretch of the race.
Erin Mullins followed Zorana with a 131st place finish with a time of 21:30.5, and
Josie Brown shortly followed in 156th place with a time of 21:42.5.
Kaili Keefe turned in a time of 22:28.1 overall, and following closely behind was teammate
Melissa Hruska in 228th place at 22:43.2. Round out the remainder of the Cougars was
Marie Gaudin with a time of 23:01.6, and
Kiyena Beatty at 23:08.7.
The top women's team in the nation, Arkansas, took home a number one finish at Nuttycombe with 62 total points, followed by Stanford with 98 points, and in third North Carolina State with 203 points overall.
"Despite having 20 of the top 30, and 25 of the top 40 teams in the nation competing, we expected to finish higher. Having said that, we had some outstanding individual performances led by Amir's 20th place finish," head coach
Wayne Phipps discussed. "His finish was the highest individual finish we have had at this meet, and he looked amazing the entire race. We had other very good performances from Reid on the men's side, and from Zorana, Erin, and Josie on the women's side."
INTO THE TWITTER-VERSE
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Washington State will gear up next for the Pac-12 Championships, Friday, Nov. 1, and will be ran at the Ash Creek Preserve, located at Monmouth, Oregon.
