2007 WAC CHAMPIONSHIP ? The 2007 WAC Cross Country Championship travels to Logan, Utah. This year’s championships will be held Saturday, Oct. 27 at the American West Heritage Center. Host Utah State’s men and women swept the 2006 WAC Championship in Fresno, Calif. The men will open the championship with a 9 a.m. start time, followed by the women at 9:45 a.m.
October 27, 2007
Logan, Utah
Host: Utah State
American West Heritage Center
Admission: Free
UTAH STATE MEN, IDAHO WOMEN FAVORED IN PRE-CHAMPIONSHIP POLL ? Utah State received six of the seven first-place votes and was selected as the favorite to win this Saturday's WAC title. Idaho received seven of the nine first-place votes in the poll to take the top spot on the women's side.
MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
Boise State Broncos
n The Broncos won their opening race of the year, the Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic, with five runners in the top 13.
n Cody Eaton has led Boise State in scoring three of the four races this season.
n Eaton won the Western Athletic Conference Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week for the week of Sept. 10, after he won the individual title at the Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic and led the Broncos to the team championship.
n Sawyer Bosch has finished in the top 20 in the first four races this season. His best finish came in the Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic when he finished in third place.
n Kevin Higgs has collected four top 25 finishes this season with his best finish coming at the Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic when he finished fifth.
n Boise State has one first place finish and two second place finishes in four races this season.
Fresno State Bulldogs
n Freshman Erick Garcia has been Fresno State’s top runner all season long, finishing first at the Pepperdine Invitational and second in two other races.
n Garcia and sophomore Frank Sanders have been Fresno State’s top two runners all season long.
n Sanders has finished among the top-25 in each races this season, with a solid performance at the Pepperdine Invitational where he was 13th with a time of 25:19 in the 8K race.
n Fresno State placed five runners within the top-15 at the Sacramento State Hornet Jamboree.
n Sophomore Brandon Geis placed 22nd overall, and third among the Bulldogs, with a time of 34:35 at the UC San Diego Triton Classic 10K.
n Senior David Vartanian has been among Fresno State’s top-five finishers in three of the first four races this season. Senior Mehdi Taieb-Brahim has been among Fresno State’s top-five finishers in two of the first four competitions this year.
Idaho Vandals
n Diego Moreno-Guzman has been Idaho’s top finisher in the last two races for the Vandal men. He ran Idaho’s best time ever at the Sundodger Invitational, where he finished seventh, and also finished first among collegiate competitors at the Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational. Both were the first two cross country races of his career.
n Kevin Friesen returns as Idaho’s top runner. Friesen was Idaho’s top finisher in every race last season, including a sixth-place finish at the 2006 WAC Championships to lead the team to third-place finish.
n Former walk-on Matt Racine has emerged as one of Idaho’s top runners this season. He was Idaho’s second finisher at the Sundodger with a 38th-place finish and the team’s top finisher at the Utah State Open in August. He came in 17th at last year’s WAC Championships to help lead the men to a third-place finish.
n Men’s cross country is one of the oldest and most successful sports at Idaho. The team is in its 99th year of competition and has won 11 conference titles.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs
n Louisiana Tech only lost one runner from last season’s team, graduated senior Tim Marshall.
n Junior Jace Benoit was Tech’s top finisher this season leading the way at the UL-Monroe Warhawk Invitational with a time of 27:06
n After transferring from the University of New Orleans, junior Cory Denstel came on strong for the Bulldogs in his first cross country season of competition.
n Three of Tech’s top runners elected to red-shirt their senior seasons. They were Zach Schuler, Nate Davis and Kinsey Dinnel.
n Red-shirt senior Zach Schuler earned all-LSWA honors last season. He also earned second-team all-WAC honors after the 2006 season. Kinsey Dinnel finished 38th at the 2005 NCAA Regionals in Waco, Texas, while Zach Schuler placed 42nd.
n Nate and Kyle Davis are brothers out of Slidell, La.
New Mexico State
n Freshman standout Michael Hart has led the Aggies across the finish line in every race this season.
n The freshman class has really proved themselves this season, finishing top-five freshman in two of the four races this season.
n Junior Josh Sifuentes returned from injury and raced in his first race Friday, Oct. 5 at the Arizona State Invite.
n At the Lobo Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., the men’s squad posted a seventh place finish with freshman Michael Hart leading the way.
n At the Lori Fitzgerald Invitational, the men’s squad posted their best finish on the season, an impressive fourth place.
n At the Kachina Classic the men finished in fifth place, beating their 2006 seventh place mark.
San Jose State Spartans
n The Spartan men have progressively improved in the WAC Championship since 2001, finishing 8th in 2001 and 2002, improving to 7th in 2003, finishing 6th in 2004 and taking 5th in 2005 and 2006.
n Chris Hart and Sam Wambugu are the only two seniors on the SJSU men’s team. Hart and Wambugu were teammates at American River College before reuniting at SJSU.
n The top-finish for the Spartan men was a third-place showing at the USF Invitational to open the season.
n Sean Dundon, junior, has competed in every race in the last three seasons.
n The Spartans ran three races in seven days, when the competed at the Pepperdine Invitational on Saturday, September 27th, then splitting the team for the Notre Dame Invitational and Stanford Invitational on September 28th and 29th.
n The SJSU men’s cross country team are two-time national champions, capturing the NCAA crown in 1962 and 1963.
Utah State Aggies
n Junior Seth Wold took first place out of 42 athletes and was the top finisher for the USU men at the Utah State Open. Wold, the top returner for the Aggies this season, took fifth at the WAC Championships last year and was named first-team all-WAC.
n Men’s team had 3 top 10 finishes, at the Utah State Open. Wold took first. Freshman Chio Lopez took eighth and freshman Steve Strickland took 10th.
n The men had two runners that placed in the Top 70 out of 138 runners at the Oregon Invitational. Seth Wold finished 31st with a time of 24:03 and Jason Holt finished 68th with a time of 24:52.
n Wold took second place out of 118 runners at the Montana Invitational.
n Men’s team had three top 20 finishes out of 118 runners in the Montana Invitational. Wold finished second with 24:36.00, Jason Holt finished 13th with a time of 25:25.00, and Chio Lopex coming in 16th with a time of 25:29.00.
WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
Boise State Broncos
n Boise State has not finished below second place in any race this season. The Broncos won the Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic and the Bob Firman Classic, while collecting second place finishes in the Charles Bowles Invitational and the West Coast Preview.
n Breanna Sande has led the Broncos in scoring all four races. Sande was named WAC Cross Country Athlete of the Week after leading the Broncos to the team title in the Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic.
n Sande won the Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic, finished second in the Bob Firman Classic, third in the Charles Bowles Invitational and fourth in the West Coast Preview.
n Chaly Jones has four top 10 finishes in as many races this season. Her season best finish came in the Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic when she finished fifth. Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic when he finished fifth.
n Hilary McClendon has three top 10 finishes in as many races this season. Her best finish came in the Northwest Nazarene Hampton Inn and Suites Classic when she finished fourth.
Fresno State Bulldogs
n Bulldogs have competed in three 5K races and two 6K races this season.
n Top five finished within the top-50 at the UC Irvine Invitational.
n Sophomore Marissa McPhail won the Sacramento State Hornet Jamboree on Sept. 15, with a time of 18:27 in the 5K race.
n Fresno State placed five runners within the top-11 at the Sacramento State Hornet Jamboree.
n Junior Roxanne Sellick has placed within the top-10 in three of the first four races this year.
n Top five runners finished within one minute of each other in two of the first four races.
n At the UC San Diego Triton Classic, Sellick and McPhail finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
n Senior Meredith Hawkins has finished within the top-20 of a race on two occasions this year.
Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine
n Senior Chantelle Wilder has won four individual titles this season, BYU-Hawai?i Invitational, Chaminade Invitational, Big Wave Invitational, and Hawai?i Pacific Invitational. Wilder has eight career titles.
n Wilder has finished in the top 12 in each of the team’s six meets this season after a ninth place and personal-best showing at the Willamette Invitational and 12th place at the Santa Clara Invitational.
n Wilder is a two-time WAC Cross Country Athlete of the Week this year.
n Freshman Samantha Lotnick was the team’s second highest finisher twice at the Willamette and HPU Invitationals.
n UH has finished third in four of its six meets this season, including the Big Wave Invite, which the team hosts annually at the Kane?ohe Klipper Golf Course.
Idaho Vandals
n The Idaho women head to the WAC Championships in search of their second team title in the last three years. The team won in 2005, when Dee Olson was named Athlete of the Year and head coach Wayne Phipps was named Coach of the Year.
n Idaho returns two of its top runners from the 2005 WAC champion team this season. Dee Olson was the 2005 individual champion, while Mandy Macalister was a First Team All-WAC honoree and fifth-place finisher. Both redshirted last season.
n Idaho’s has produced the last two individual WAC champions on the women’s side. Current senior Dee Olson won the WAC title in 2005 in leading the Vandal women to the team title and Rhea Richter won last year’s title as a true freshman when Olson redshirted.
n Junior runner Allix Lee-Painter was one of the most improved athletes in the track & field team last spring and hasn’t slowed down one bit over the summer. He has improved her times in every race so far this season, including a 77-place and one-minute improvement at the Sundodger Invitational.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters
n Freshman Lauren Gilbert was the first finisher for the Techsters in all competitions in which she competed.
n The Techsters dualed Louisiana College for a win in the 2007 Mook 4 Invitational in September.
n Some members of the cross country squad were a part of the 2007 WAC Outdoor Championship team including Kamelia Stroy, Christina Tupper, Antoinette Cobb and El Charrita Reynolds.
n Kamelia Stroy earned All-American honors during the outdoor season for her efforts with the hurdles.
n El Charrita Reynolds has become a top relay runner for the Lady Techsters.
n Christina Tupper finished third in the long jump and triple jump at last season’s WAC Outdoor Championships.
n Tech head coach Gary Stanley won WAC Coach of the Year honors during the outdoor season in 2007.
Nevada Wolf Pack
n Nevada hosted a home cross country meet for the second consecutive season, hosting the Nevada Twilight Cross Country Classic on August 31, 2007.
n Nevada won the Sacramento State Invite on September 15, 2007
its first team win since the 2005 season.
n Christa Avena has been Nevada’s top finisher in two out of Nevada’s three meets this season (Sacramento State Invite and Stanford Invitational).
n Several runners including Avena, who set a 69 second PR in the Sacramento State Invite, have set PR’s this season.
n Nevada competed in the Stanford Invitational this season marking the 6th time in the last seven years Nevada has run in the meet.
n Amanda Moreno won her first career WAC Runner of the Week honor on September 3, 2007.
n Five freshman runners have competed for the Pack this season.
New Mexico State Aggies
n Freshman Brandi Gutierrez has led the Aggies in every race this season.
n Gutierrez’s marks are among the top freshman marks in the history of the program.
n The Aggies have placed within the top three at every race this season.
n The Aggies currently hold back-to-back titles at their home meet, the Kachina Classic.
n Currently, the Aggies have edged their way up on the Regional Poll, placing 14th.
n The women placed third at the Lobo Invitational, with freshman Brandi Gutierrez leading the way.
n The women’s squad posted a second place finish at the Lori Fitzgerald Invitational, beating their third place finish in 2005.