WSU men sixth, women 10th in Pac-12 cross country championships in Colfax

John Whelan and Michael Williams’ led the Washington State men to a sixth-place finish at the Pac-12 cross country championships held at Colfax Golf Club on Friday.

The Cougar women were 10th.

The No. 1-ranked Colorado men, the defending national champions, won their fifth consecutive team title with 46 points followed by No. 23 Stanford with 57, No. 3 Oregon 83, No. 20 Washington 96, No. 15 UCLA 127, Washington State 137, No. 21 California 167, Arizona State 218 and Arizona 271.

Oregon’s Edward Cheserek, the defending national champion, won his third conference title with time of 23:06.3.

Whelan placed ninth in the 8,000-meter race in 23:26.3. Williams was 12th in 23:29.2.

“Coach (Wayne) Phipps and I were talking last night and we felt top 10 was a realistic finish and that’s what I was shooting for contribute to the team today,” Whelan said. “My overall fitness and training has been so much better this year, as it should be as you progress through a career.

“The next goal is place similarly in the top 10 or top 15 at the NCAA regional and help with that low score and help get our team to the NCAA championships.”

The No. 3-ranked Colorado women won the team title with 45 points followed by No. 5 Oregon with 51, No. 10 Stanford 80, No. 12 Washington 92, No. 19 Utah 149, Arizona State 162, California 204, Arizona 237, UCLA 241, WSU 262, Oregon State 321, and USC 361.

Stanford’s Aisling Cuffe, the 2013 individual winner, won the individual title with a 6,000-meter time of 19:53.1.

WSU senior CharLee Linton (Shoreline, Wash.) was the top Cougar finisher at 36th in a time of 20:51.5.

The next competition for WSU is the NCAA West Regional on Nov. 13 at Jefferson Park Golf Course in Seattle.