Lystad and Simon move on to different schools for their fifth year...

Two notable distance runners with ties to the state of Washington recently announced that they will compete for different schools as fifth year seniors.

Kirkland native Tansey Lystad (left/photo by Paul Merca), who graduated from the University of Portland, will use her final year of eligibility (indoor and outdoor track) at Boise State University, while Federal Way native Meron Simon, who will graduate at the end of summer quarter from the University of Washington, will head east to North Carolina State University.

Last season, Lystad won the WCC cross country title and earned All-America honors in cross country with her 15th place finish in the NCAA championships.  She also qualified for the NCAA outdoor track & field championships the last two seasons for the Pilots in the steeple (2014) and 5000 (2015), and indoors this past season in the 5000.

Simon goes to North Carolina State after qualifying for this year’s NCAA championships in the steeplechase, and finishing fifth in the Pac-12 championships in that event.  He also finished 154th in the NCAA cross country championships last fall, as the Huskies qualified as a team for the first time since 2009.

Simon (left/photo by Paul Merca) made headlines in April as he passed a shocked Tanguy Pepiot of Oregon in the last few meters of the steeplechase contested at the Pepsi Team Invitational at Hayward Field, as Pepiot prematurely began celebrating what he thought was an imminent victory in front of the home crowd.

Simon will have one year of eligibility in cross country, indoor, and outdoor track.