PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State freshman Evans Kurui was named the West Coast Conference Men's Co-Runner of the Year, it was announced by the conference Wednesday. Kurui's award is well deserved after winning both the NCAA West Regional and the West Coast Conference Championship.

In his first collegiate season, Kurui started off the season with back-to-back wins at the WSU Alumni Open and Cougar Classic. Kurui set a course record in his second race at Colfax Golf Club, running an 8k time of 22:46.72, which was nearly 20 seconds faster than the previous record holder.

Kurui followed those two races with a second-place finish, 22:24.7, at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, besting his time at the Cougar Classic by 20 seconds. This set a new personal best 8k time for the freshman. A few weeks later, he got another second-place finish, 23:37.4, at the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals meet.

At the West Coast Conference Championships, Kurui won the event by 20 seconds over the runner-up. He followed that incredible performance by winning the NCAA West Regionals to automatically qualify for the National Championship. He finished the 10k with a time of 28:53.7, 15 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. To finish his freshman season, Kurui put up a top-40 finish at the National Championships.

During the season, the WCC Freshman of the Year ran the 10th-fastest 10K time in the nation and the 13th-fastest 8K in the nation. His 10K time also topped all freshmen in the nation. Kurui, who shared the WCC Co-Runner of the Year honor with Portland's Matt Strangio, won three WCC Cross Country Runner of the Week awards, was named to the All-WCC First Team, and capped his freshman cross country season by earning All-America honors at the NCAA Championships.