Cougars struggle in weekend races

Evan Baron Evergreen Cross Country reporter

The Washington State University cross country teams competed in two meets over the weekend; the men in the 57th Annual Notre Dame Invitational, and the women in the NCAA Inter-Regional Jamboree.

The women’s cross country team earned a 10th place finish and finished 263 points behind first place winner UCLA, according to wsucougars.com.

“I thought the women competed well today,” Cross Country Coach Tim Riley said in an interview. “Having Ruby Roberts back obviously helped on the scorecard but also from a leadership standpoint. CharLee Linton and Courtney Zalud had good days as well.”

Junior Ruby Roberts finished in 17th place with a time of 17-minutes, 20 seconds. Sophomore CharLee Linton ran a time of 17-minutes, 44 seconds, which resulted in a 43rd place finish. Following Linton was redshirt senior Courtney Zalud who ran a time of 17-minutes, 56 seconds and finished in 57th place.

“I am very proud of the way the women raced today,” WSU Student Coach Caroline Austin said an interview. “Across the board the women ran strong and competed well. We still have some fitness to gain, but I feel that come championship season and next time they see this course they will be even stronger.”

The Cougar men finished in 20th place overall. Senior Andrew Gonzales was the top Cougar runner to finish the race. Gonzales finished in 39th place and ran a time of 25-minutes, 8.7 seconds. Freshman John Whelan finished in 80th place for WSU with a time of 25-minutes, 37.2 seconds, according to wsucougars.com. WSU runners junior Lee George and freshman Jackson Haselnus did not finish the race. The overall winner of the race was Columbia with 113 points.

“On the men’s side, we had a terrible day,” Riley said. “When two of your top seven drop out of the race, the rest of the team really needs to step up and that didn’t happen.”

The next race for the WSU cross country team will be Oct. 19 at the Inland Northwest Classic in Lewiston, Idaho.