Washington State squads, Washington women named as at-large teams for NCAA D1 XC champs...
INDIANAPOLIS--Both Washington State squads and the Washington women's team, all had to await until Saturday's selection show to confirm their places at the NCAA Division I cross country championships in Columbia, Missouri on Saturday November 22nd at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course.
The Washington State men (Paul Merca photo) were a close third behind Oregon's 58 and Cal Baptist's 95 for one of the two automatic qualifying spots to the national championships, scoring 98 points.
Despite the third place finish, the Cougars were projected to qualify for the nationals as one of the 14 at-large entries based on their strong showing at the Nuttycombe Invitational at Wisconsin, where they finished sixth, as well as winning the West Coast Conference title two weeks ago in Spokane.
At the West regionals in Sacramento Friday, the Cougs went 1-2 led by Solomon Kipchoge and defending regional champ Evans Kurui, who ran 28:55 and 29:24 over 10k at Haggin Oaks Golf Course.
For Washington State, this marks the 18th appearance in program history, and the first since 2017, when they finished 24th.
The Cougar women were fourth in the strong West Region Friday, scoring 120 points, behind team champion Stanford's 66, Oregon's 75, and Boise State's 114.
Rosemary Longisa led the Cougar effort with her winning performance, running the 6k course at Haggin Oaks in a time of 19:09, four seconds clear of Oregon's Diana Cherotich.
The Cougars will make their third team appearance at the NCAA championships, and first since 1985, when they tied for seventh.
Behind the Cougars are the Washington Huskies, who were fifth with 124 points, despite running without World University Games 5000m champion Julia David-Smith, who many thought would open her season at the Regionals.
The Dawgs were led at Regionals by Mia Cochran, who finished eleventh in 19:54.
Washington returns to the NCAA championships for the nineteenth straight time and 29th in the last 31 years.
INDIVIDUALS...
Yakima native Jonas Price (Paul Merca photo) of the University of Portland was selected as one of the individual competitors not on a qualifying team for next week's championships.
Price, a grad transfer from the University of Oklahoma, finished fifth in 29:29. Price will make his second appearance at the NCAA cross country championships, with his previous appearance coming at the spring 2021 championships, where he finished 186th.
While the Bulldogs of Gonzaga, who many thought would have a strong chance to qualify as a team out of the West Region, but were disappointed with their seventh place finish with 137 points, they will send two individuals to Columbia next week in the women's race.
Logan Hofstee (Paul Merca photo) from Spokane Valley's East Valley HS, was Gonzaga's top finisher at regionals Friday, finishing seventh in 19:37.
She'll be joined by Anacortes native Jessica Frydenlund (Paul Merca photo), who was 13th in 20:03.
Both will make their second straight appearance at nationals. Frydenlund was 166th last year, while Hofstee was 201st.
Victoria Rodriguez, who competed for Mercer Island HS last season, was part of Wake Forest's team that finished fifth at the Southeast Regionals in Earlysville, Virginia. The Demon Deacons earned an at-large berth into the national championships.
Rodriguez was Wake Forest's sixth runner at regionals, finishing 92nd in a time of 21:26.
The NCAA Division I cross country championships will be telecast next Saturday on ESPNU & the ESPN app starting at 6:30 am Pacific. The women’s race will begin at 7:20 a.m. PT, followed by the men’s race at 8:10 a.m. PT.
NOTE: The NCAA, and the sports information offices of Gonzaga University, the University of Washington and Washington State University contributed to this report.
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