Eastern Washington responds to Spokesman-Review's investigative piece on former XC coach Chris Shane...

CHENEY—In response to a post written by Jim Allen of the Spokane Spokesman-Review on January 5th, Eastern Washington University spokesman David Meany sent out the following press release to paulmerca.blogspot.com regarding the departure of former distance coach Chris Shane (above, with Sarah Reiter/photo by Paul Merca) and his employment with the school:

“Eastern Washington University wants to clarify the report surrounding Cross Country Coach Chris Shane’s departure from the University published in the Spokesman-Review on Friday, January 5, 2018.  All current Eastern Washington University coaching contracts provide the University with the ability to terminate contracts for convenience. Eastern exercised its contractual right to end Shane’s employment based on convenience. Mr. Shane was not terminated for cause as a result of the investigative report identified in the January 5th article.”

“Shane came to Eastern from the University of San Francisco in 2015. During his time at the university, he coached the Eagles men’s and women’s cross country teams, in addition to track and field distance runners.:

“During Coach Shane’s tenure, the Cross Country Team had the following achievements:

—Two individual qualifiers for the NCAA Cross Country Championships (Sarah Reiter in 2015 and 2016)

—Best-ever 2nd place team finish for the women at the 2015 Big Sky Cross Country Championships

—Two individual All-Big Sky Cross Country recipients (top 10 finish)

—Four All-Big Sky Outdoor Track & Field recipients (top three finish) with one champion

—Three All-Big Sky Indoor Track & Field recipients (top three finish) with one champion

—Total of 35 Big Sky All-Academic selections in Cross Country (14 men, 21 women)”

Here are links to our original story noting Shane's departure on December 20th, as well as the story written on January 5th stating Shane's plan to take legal action against the school.