MADISON, Wis. – The Washington State men's cross country team, ranked No. 29 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), finished 13th Friday afternoon in the Men's Championship Race at the 9th Annual Nuttycombe Invitational at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Madison, Wis.
 
Senior Michael Williams (Richland, Wash.) led the Cougars with a 39th place finish in a time of 24 minutes, 15 seconds on the 8,000m course. WSU men's scorers included junior Chandler Teigen 55th (24:23.0), junior Nathan Wadhwani 96th (24:42.4), Jake Finney 104th (24:48.1), and sophomore Paul Ryan 147th (25:01.7). Other Cougars racing in the men's championship race included freshman Matthew Watkins 158th (25:08.0), and junior Nathan Tadesse 207th (25:41.6).
 
Washington State finished 13th with 441 points. No. 1 Northern Arizona won with 50 points, followed by No. 25 Portland with 123 points, and No. 2 Syracuse with 151 points.
 
WSU men finished ahead of these higher-ranked teams from the latest poll: No. 13 Iona 17th, No. 14 Iowa State 16th, No. 15 Boise State 21st, No. 16 Illinois 28th, No. 18 Virginia 30th, and No. 28 Wisconsin 25th.
 
"A solid race on the men's side as we scored a number of potential points and beat several nationally-ranked teams including a couple of top 15 teams. We still have a lot of room for improvement but it was definitely a step in the right direction. We were a little too conservative at the beginning of the race and moved up from 29th to 13th in the last half," WSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Wayne Phipps said.
 
Junior Vallery Korir (Iten, Kenya) won the 6,000m Women's Open race in a time of 20:36.9, leading from start to finish, 18 seconds faster than the runner up. The WSU women took fourth out of nine teams with 111 points. Cougars women scorers were: senior Devon Bortfeld 8th (21:25.6), sophomore Melissa Hruska 27th (22:15.0), sophomore Morgan Lash 37th (22:47.9), and freshman Kiyena Beatty 38th (22:51.2). Other Cougars racing included sophomore Marie Gaudin 39th (22:54.6), and junior Josie Brown who did not finish.
 
"The best thing about running by yourself is that it boosts your mental skills of running," said Korir in a post-race interview with Paul Merca of paulmerca.blogspot.com.
 
No. 1 Colorado won the Women's Open with 35 points, followed by Michigan State with 60 points and No. 13 Boise State with 80 points.
 
"Vallery was amazing and led the race from start to finish. She ran very controlled and was never challenged. Devon ran a courageous race as she was very sick and her status on race day was in question up until start time. We need to continue to work on closing our gap from our top two runners to our three thru five runners" said Phipps.
 
A limited Cougar squad will compete at the Inland Empire Championships, Oct. 14 in Lewiston, Idaho.