The WSU women’s and No. 15 men’s cross-country teams will be in Tucson, Arizona, today to compete in the Pac-12 Championship at the Randolph North Golf Course.

Running against the Cougs is every team in the Pac-12 conference, except Oregon State University, the University of Utah, and the University of Southern California, which will only have its women’s team participating.

Head Coach Wayne Phipps says he is really excited for this upcoming race.

“We are really ready, this season has flown by,” Phipps said in an interview with WSU Athletics. “We’re all excited about the Pac-12 Championship. Best conference meet, arguably outside of the NCAA, maybe the best meet of the entire nation.”

In this upcoming championship race, the winner doesn’t advance any differently than any other team in the Pac-12. Because of this, it may seem pointless to even try to win, but Phipps says the runners still take the race seriously.

“I think that anybody that goes to a Pac-12 meet or has been to a Pac-12 meet is very motivated and excited,” Phipps said in the interview with WSU Athletics. “You show up and you see, including ourselves, the top teams in the entire nation. There’s more ranked teams in the Pac-12 than any other conference, so it’s easy to get motivated for this one.”

Senior John Whelan, who came in eighth place in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational last month, will be looking forward to his fourth and final time attending the meet.

“Pac-12 in cross-country is the deepest conference in the nation,” Whelan said. “Six ranked teams on the men’s side, seven ranked teams on the women’s side, so it’s a chance you get to compete against the best of the nation. The whole atmosphere is incredible.”

Since this race will be in Tucson, the Cougs will face temperatures that are not normally felt here in Pullman.

“The heat is going to be a factor,” said junior Devon Bortfeld. “But we’ve prepared for that, modified training.”

The modified training usually consists of doing runs with more layers of clothing and some training in the hot tub. Whelan says that it physically and mentally gets you ready for the heat in Tucson.

“We’ve worked pretty diligently with our medical staff and our sports nutrition staff to come up with some training that we’ve done over the last three weeks to prepare us,” Phipps said via WSU Athletics. “Hopefully it all pays off in the end. We have designed pre-cooling protocol and we’re as prepared as you possibly could be for really any type of weather.”

The men’s race will be 8,000 meters and will begin at 10:30 a.m. The women’s race will be 6,000 meters and will begin at 9:30 a.m.

Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the race on Monday at 6 p.m. The WSU cross-country team’s next race will be the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento California Nov. 11.