THIS WEEK IN THE WAC
Friday, August 29
Nevada at Nevada Twilight, Reno, Nev.
Fresno State at Nevada Twilight, Reno, Nev.
Saturday, August 30
San Jose State at San Francisco Invitational, San Francisco, Calif.
Utah State at Utah State Open, Logan, Utah
WAC NOTES
WAC CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2008 WAC Cross Country Championship travels to Las Cruces, New Mexico. This year’s championships will be held Saturday, Nov. 1 at the New Mexico State Golf Course. Utah State won last year’s men’s championship, while Idaho took the title on the women’s side.
November 1, 2008
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Host: New Mexico State
New Mexico State Golf Course
Admission: Free
NCAA REGIONALS
The 2008 Cross Country Regionals will be held at nine sites throughout the country, Saturday, Nov. 15. WAC teams will be represented in three locations. The West Region will be held in Stanford, Calif. (Stanford University). The Mountain Region will be held in For Collins, Colo. (Colorado State University), while Louisiana Tech will be the lone team in the South Central Regional (Baylor University) in Maryville, Tenn.
November 15, 2008
Great Lakes Region - Purdue University
Mid Atlantic Region - Princeton University
Midwest Region - Oklahoma State University
Mountain Region - Colorado State University
Northeast Region - Columbia University-Barnard College
South Region - University of Tennessee, Knoxville
South Central Region - Baylor University
Southeast Region - Wake Forest University
West Region - Stanford University
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS ? The 2008 Cross Country National Championships once again travels to Terre Haute, Ind. and Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. Indiana State is the host for this year’s Championships.
November 24, 2008
Wabash Valley Family Sports Center
Terre Haute, Ind.
Host: Indiana State University
Ticket Info: 812/237-4040
TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
Boise State Broncos
The Boise State men’s cross country team will look to junior Cameron Lockard to provide the Broncos with leadership as he is the only upperclassman on the team as 14 of the 15 man roster consists of freshmen and sophomores ... on the women’s side, the Broncos welcome back the defending Breanne Sande, who was named Western Athletic Conference Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year after she captured the individual title at the WAC Cross Country Championships with a time of 17:01.32 on the 5,000-meter Historic American West Heritage Center in Logan, Utah, to win the race by 9.03 seconds.
Fresno State Bulldogs
Fresno State returns Frank Sanders, who won the 1,500-meter at the 2008 WAC Outdoor Track & Field Championship ... Erick Garcia looks to lead the Bulldogs for the second season after posting the team’s top times throughout 2007 ... the team also returns Marissa McPhail, who was fourth at the 2008 WAC Outdoor Track & Field Meet in the 10K and took tenth at the WAC Conference Meet in 2007 ... both senior Briana Cleary and junior Jennifer Hernandez, who finished among Fresno State’s top five last season, will compete for the Bulldogs again in the 2008 season ... Sean McManus, former Florida State coach, took the reins of the Fresno State cross country team in August.
Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine
Hawai?i played eighth in last year’s WAC women’s championship ... the team’s highest finisher at last season’s championship was Chantelle Wilder, who finished 23rd with a time of 17:53.21 ... Briana Goodnight is UH’s top returner ... Goodnight placed 56th at last year’s WAC championship with a personal-best time of 19:44 ... she also placed 205th at the NCAA regional ... Goodnight competed and travelled in seven meets ... The Rainbow Wahine open the season on Sept. 6 at the Chaminade Invitational.
Idaho Vandals
Idaho’s men will look to improve on their second-place finish at last season’s WAC Championships and they should have plenty of experience ... the men’s team returns five of its seven members and adds three talented freshmen to the mix ... The Vandal women have won two of the three WAC Cross Country titles since joining the conference in 2005, but in 2008 the team must try to defend its titles without the two most important runners from those championship seasons ... Dee Olson and Mandy Macalister, Idaho’s top two finishers on both championship squads, have graduated and taken their 17 combined all-WAC honors from cross country and track with them.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters
Seniors Zach Schuler, Nate Davis and Kinsey Dinnel all red-shirted the 2007 season and will be back for a more mature 2008 team ... Freshmen Kyle Davis, David Monroe and Steven Cortez competed in the 2007 WAC Cross Country Championships in Logan, Utah ... Louisiana Tech opens the 2008 season with a home meet at the Mook 4 Invitational at Lincoln Parish Park, in Ruston, La.
Nevada Wolf Pack
Nevada has recorded back-to-back second place finishes at the WAC Championships in 2006 and 2007 and will look to capture Nevada’s first cross country title since the 2003 season ... The Pack returns Freshman of the Year and first team honoree, Sam Davis ... Nevada also returns first-team members Christa Avena, who finished second overall at the 2007 WAC Championships, and first-team member Natalia Jarawka who finished sixth ... Nevada will open its season at home for the third consecutive year. The Pack will host the second annual Nevada Twilight Cross Country Classic at Rancho San Rafael Park on August 29.
New Mexico State Aggies
For the first time since NMSU joined the WAC, three seasons ago, the Aggies are hosting the 2008 WAC Cross Country Championships at the NMSU Golf Course ... at the Aggies home meet, the Kachina Classic, the women look to defend their back-to-back crowns, in a quest to make it a third-straight sweep ... the men finished fourth overall last season, which marks a three-spot improvement from the previous season ... NMSU returns both the women’s and men’s leading runner from the 2007 season. Sophomore Michael Hart led the harriers across every finish line last season and sophomore Brandi Gutierrez paced the Aggies in five of the seven races.
San Jose State Spartans
In 2007, the San Jose State men finished fifth at the WAC Championship over 8K, and 24th at the NCAA West Regional over 10K ... the Spartan women placed seventh in the WAC over 5K, and 25th at the regional meet over 6K ... seven of the 11 runners on the Spartan men’s roster were letterwinners a year ago, with six of them having competed at the 2007 WAC Championship ... the SJSU women return their top finisher from the 2007 WAC Championship in sophomore Arely Marquez ... Jenna Hicks is the lone senior on the roster ... Augie Argabright is in his 15th season in charge of the cross country program at San Jose State.
Utah State Aggies
USU men have won three straight WAC Cross Country Championships (2005, 2006, 2007) ... USU’s women won the 2006 WAC Championships, finished third in 2007 and second in 2005 ... the Aggies have eight women and 11 men returning, including six men and one woman who earned all-WAC honors last year ... Alicia Holt was named all-WAC for USU’s women and Jared Glenn, Hunter Nelson, Jason Holt, Steve Strickland, Chio Lopez and Nick Bollinder all earned all-WAC for the men ... Utah State’s men and women both finished eighth at the NCAA regionals last fall.