2024 Cross Country Preview: Washington State University...

Brian Barsaiya is Washington State's top returning
runner (Paul Merca photo)

After a few years away from previewing the state's nine NCAA Division I and II cross country teams due to our emphasis on the late summer pro competitions, paulmerca.blogspot.com is posting another in a series of snapshots of the state's teams.

The final team previewing is Washington State University, under director Wayne Phipps and head women's coach Laura Harmon.

With the collapse of the Pac-12, the Cougars will compete for at least this season and possibly next season as an associate member of the West Coast Conference, alongside perennial conference leaders Gonzaga and Portland while the school explores its options moving forward.

Please note that the 2024 team roster was not posted on its website at the time of this writing, and the best information we had was the meet report posted on the timing site for Friday's WSU Alumni Open. This preview may be updated.

The Washington State men finished sixth at the final Pac 12 championships, and 13th at the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento.

Their 1-2 punch from last year's regional championship team, Brian Barsaiya (36th) and Kelvin Limo (41st) return. Everyone else from the team that ran at regionals, including Leif Swanson (67th), Kyle Ortega-Gamill (94th), Aiden Emerson (147th), Grayson Walcott (148th), and Jacob Easton (188th) are all back, giving the Cougars a strong presence.

The Cougars' most significant addition is freshman Evans Kurui, who along with Barsaiya and Limo, were selected by the WCC coaches to their conference preseason team. 

Kurui is a bit of a mystery with no statistics listed on the World Athletics database.

UPDATE: According to WSU director Wayne Phipps, Kurui's name is misspelled on the World Athletics database. This is what WA has.

 

Zenah Cheptoo of WSU at the 2024 Pac-12 
Championships, where she finished second in the
5000 meters (Paul Merca photo)

The women, who finished ninth at the Pac-12s and 13th at the NCAA West Regionals, will be led by Neema Kimtai, who finished 32nd at the NCAA regional race.

Zenah Cheptoo, who came onto the team during the indoor season, and broke 9 minutes in the 3000, ran 15:40.09 in the 5000 on the track outdoors, and finished second in the Pac-12 5000, is expected to be the Cougars' frontrunner. Cheptoo was the only Cougar selected by the WCC coaches onto its pre-season all-conference team.

Alaina Stone-Boggs (97th), Nicole Bissell (113th), Maya Nichols (168th), and Jaylyn Lehner (215th) are the four other Cougs from the 2023 NCAA regionals team who return.

One new runner on the women's team who could challenge for one of the spots on the Cougar top seven come conference and regionals time is freshman Sabrina Colbert from Seattle's Franklin HS. She was injured much of the 2023 and 2024 seasons, but finished fifth in the Washington 3A cross country championships in 2022.

If there is anyone in the WCC with the potential to challenge Gonzaga's Rosina Machu, it's clearly Cheptoo.

The Cougars are ranked tenth in the USTFCCCA West Regional rankings behind number 3 Gonzaga, number 6 Portland, and number 9 Oregon State.

Washington State will have to depend on the runners behind Cheptoo and Kimtai to run close to them if they want to make a run at Oregon State at the conference championships.

The Cougars open the season with their traditional Alumni Open on August 30th at the Colfax Golf Club, then turn around two weeks later and host the Cougar Classic featuring Gonzaga, Idaho, Eastern Washington and SeattleU in Colfax.

Their schedule includes two national caliber meets--the Joe Piane Invitational at Notre Dame on October 4th, and then at the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals in Madison on October 19th.

For those not going to Wisconsin for Pre-Nationals, they will run at the Lewis-Clark Invitational close to home in Lewiston, Idaho on the same day.

Championship season begins on Saturday November 2nd at the WCC Championships in Lodi, California, hosted by the University of the Pacific, before hosting the NCAA regionals in Colfax on the 15th with a return trip to Madison, Wisconsin on the line for the national championships.

NOTE: The sports information department at Washington State University and the USTFCCCA contributed to this report.

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