THIS WEEK IN THE WAC
Saturday, September 6
Fresno State at Asics/UCI Invitational, Irvine, Calif.
Idaho at Bulldog Invitational, Spokane, Wash.
Hawai?i at Chaminade Invitational, Laie, O’ahu
New Mexico State at Lobo Invitational, Albuquerque, N.M.
Boise State at Roger Curran Invitational, Nampa, Idaho
WAC NOTES
USU’S KESSEN AND NEVADA’S AVENA NAMED CROSS COUNTRY ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Utah State’s Ben Kessen and Nevada’s Christa Avena have been named the Western Athletic Conference men and women’s Cross Country Athletes of the Week, respectively, for the week of Aug. 25-31.
Kessen, a senior from La Cresenta, Calif. (Cresenta Valley HS), finished third, ahead of 27 other runners at the Utah State Open on Saturday, leading the Aggies to a second place team finish. Kessen ran the four-mile course in 19:47.3.
Avena, a senior from Las Vegas, Nev. (Bishop Gorman HS), placed second overall at the 4K Nevada Twilight Cross Country Classic in Reno. Avena clocked a time of 16:05, leading five Nevada runners who finished in the top seven at the meet. She helped Nevada to a first place team finish at the event.
Other Men’s Nominees: None
Other Women’s Nominees: Utah State freshman Jessie Chugg finished third at the Utah State Open with a 5K time of 17:58.6.
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) in Waco, Texas.
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
Erick Garcia paced the men in their 2008 debut at the Nevada Twilight in Reno, Nev. Friday ... the women’s team also had a solid first-showing, taking behind the driving force of Marissa McPhail ... Garcia dominated the men’s competition, finishing first among collegiate competitors in the 6K with a time of 20:53 led the Bulldogs to a second place finish as a team ... the women took third in the team event, behind Nevada and UC Riverside ... McPhail led the Bulldog women, finishing in eighth with a time of 16:50.
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
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
The Nevada cross country team finished first out of six teams at the 2008 Nevada Twilight Cross Country Classic Friday night at Rancho San Rafael Park ... the Twilight Classic was the Pack’s first meet of the 2008 season ... as a team, the Pack recorded 22 points and finished first ahead of UC Riverside (42 points), Fresno State (92 points), CS San Bernadino (110 points), Shasta (142 points) and Mills College (151 points) ... the Pack had five runners finish in the top seven of the women’s 4000m collegiate race including Christa Avena (16:05), Janet Martinez (16:15) and Chelsea Chauvet-Moore (16:22) who finished second, third and fourth respectively.
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
The SJSU men’s and women’s cross country teams opened the season in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on Saturday ... the Spartan men finished sixth as a team in the men’s 8K race at the 16th annual USF Invitational ... Spartan junior David Haefele clocked the team’s fastest time and placed 19th overall with a 26:16.90 ... The Spartan women finished fifth as a team in the women’s 5K race at the 16th annual USF Invitational ... the Spartan women placed four runners in the top-25, led by junior Nisha Richardson who clocked the team’s fastest time and placed 14th overall with an 18:51.80.
Utah State Aggies
Utah State freshman Jessie Chugg finished third, leading the women’s cross country team to a first-place finish at the Utah State Open on Saturday ... senior Ben Kessen finished third place to lead the Aggie men to a second place overall finish ... Chugg finished the 5K run in 17:58.6 tabbing her third coming in behind Chelsea Dirazia of Utah 14:57.2 and Natalie Haws of Weber State 17:57.8 ... Kessen ran the four mile course in 19:47.3 coming in third behind Bryant Jensen and Bob Lamber both of Weber state ... following Kessen for the Aggies was freshman Brian McKenna running 20.00.2 and junior Steve Strickland running 20.08.7.