SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Chandler Teigen, finishing ninth, led the No. 20 Washington State men's cross country team to a sixth place finish and Vallery Korir, finishing 13th, led the women to a 10th place finish at the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships Friday at the Springfield Golf Course in Springfield, Ore.
 
"I felt really good about how the race went today. It didn't go exactly as planned because the initial pace was slow. I wasn't expecting to be leading with Nathan in the beginning, but given the circumstances I think it was the right thing to do," said Teigen, who finished with a time of 24 minutes 2.3 seconds. "(Coach) Wayne said to shoot for top 10 and that's what we were trying to do!"
 
Other Cougars men scoring were: Michael Williams 19th (24:11.1), Jake Finney 34th overall/33rd in scoring (24:31.2), Matthew Watkins 37th/36th (24:33.3), and Nathan Wadhwani 45th/41st (24:39.9).  Other Cougars racing included: Justin Janke 48th (24:48.0), Paul Ryan 56th (25:03.2), Nathan Tadesse 62nd (25:22.3), Cameron Dean 63rd (25:25.0) and Reid Muller 71st (25:44.0).
 
"Our guys ran very aggressively and we just couldn't hang on in the final 2,000 meters. We wanted to be more aggressive than we normally are as we wanted to take a chance at finishing in the top three. We knew if we scored 100 we had a shot at top three and we were there until the very end," WSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Wayne Phipps said. "Chandler ran an awesome race moving up from 13th to ninth in the final 100 meters. That's a performance that sets him up very well to be an NCAA All-American. We are always a better 10,000 meters team so we are excited about regionals in two weeks."
 
The No. 6 Stanford men claimed the team title in the 8,000m race, upsetting No. 5 Colorado, winners of the previous six consecutive men's titles. Men's team scores (with USTFCCCA Rankings) were: No. 6 Stanford 41, No. 5 Colorado 47, No. 14 UCLA 103, No. 8 Oregon 109, No. 21 Washington 114, No. 20 Washington State 138, California 158, Arizona 234, and Arizona State 282.
 
"As we had planned with Coach, my goal today was to be at least among the top 10. I ended up being close to that which was good," said Korir, who finished with a time of 19:19.6. "The other goal was to beat some girls who are trying to qualify individually for nationals. I ended up finishing in front of them which really helped my confidence before going to regionals."
 
WSU women scoring were: Devon Bortfeld 40th overall/38th in scoring (20:05.5), Melissa Hurska 77th/66th (20:59.1), Josie Brown 81st/69th (21:02.6), Kiyena Beatty 88th/73rd (21.16.6). Other WSU runners include: Morgan Lash 93rd (21:46.3), Marie Gaudin 94th (21:47.8), Samantha King-Shaw 95th (21:52.6), Desi Stinger 99th (22:11.9), and Katherine Dittmann 101st (22:18.2).
 
"Vallery had another awesome performance and keeps getting better every week," said Phipps. "Our women took another step forward but we need to continue to work on closing the gap between our top two and our three-four-five runners."
 
No. 3 Colorado claimed its third straight women's title with 53 points, followed by No. 1 Oregon 71, No. 14 Stanford 71, No. 13 Washington 128, No. 28 California 132, No. 27 Utah 146, Arizona 186, UCLA 221, Arizona State 232, Washington State 259, and Oregon State 263. USC did not finish.
 
The next competition for the Cougars men's and women's teams is the NCAA West Regional Cross Country Championships, Nov. 10, at the Jefferson Park Golf Course in Seattle, Wash.