Washington State University Athletics

CharLee Linton joined the Washington State University track and field staff in July 2017 to assist in the coaching women’s distance corps.
 
“We are very excited to hire CharLee,” Phipps said. “As a student-athlete at WSU she brought a level of dedication, commitment and passion that is rarely matched, and as a volunteer assistant coach for us last year, she brought that same level. CharLee impressed me right away as an assistant coach as she has a great coaching intuition and a level of understanding of the sport that belies her age. It was very important to maintain a continuity with our student-athletes and to hire someone who is 100 % dedicated to the student-athletes at WSU as well as being 100% committed to helping this program achieve success at the highest level. CharLee fits of all that perfectly: she understands our program and its philosophy and understands what it is to be a Coug.”
 
In her first cross country season as a coach, Linton mentored junior Vallery Korir to an All-America (33rd-place) finish at the NCAA Championships. Korir became the fourth WSU women to ever earn All-America status in cross country. She finished 19th at the NCAA West Region Championships earning All-Region honors and her 13th-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships led to her selection to the All-Pac-12 second team. Linton mentored a relatively youthful 2017 women's team to a 10th-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships and 15th place at the NCAA West Region.
 
Linton walked-on the WSU cross country and track teams in 2012 after a prep career at Shorewood High School in Shoreline, Wash. She earned a scholarship for her junior and senior years at WSU. Linton scored for the Cougars three consecutive years at the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships as well as at the NCAA West Region Cross Country Championships. On the track indoors, Linton ran the school record time of 16 minutes 34.89 seconds in the 5000 meters in 2016. Outdoors, Linton broke a 12-year-old school record in the 10,000 meters as a junior with her time of 34:03.69 at the 2015 Stanford Invitational. Her senior year Linton etched her name into the WSU all-time top ten lists in the 3000 meters with an indoor time of 9:35.49, eighth-best, and the 5000 meters with a time of 16:31.43, seventh-best. Linton scored at the 2016 Pac-12 Championships with seventh place finish in the 10k.
 
She graduated from WSU in May 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. After graduation, Linton remained in Pullman and served as a volunteer coach for the Cougars distance program and began working on a second degree in history.
 
Linton also volunteered as an elementary teacher assistant from 2010-14 and as an undergraduate at WSU was a member of Coug Pals who are student-athletes pen pals for elementary students in the Pullman schools. She completed Green Dot Bystander Training which brings awareness to campus violence in 2015.
 
She received the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) True Cougar Award at the 2016 Athletics Senior Recognition luncheon; an award presented to a male and female student-athlete who started their WSU careers as non-scholarship student-athletes and who, to their respective teams, define leadership, commitment to excellence, and Cougar Pride.