SEATTLE -- Michael Williams and Chandler Teigen led the No. 27 Washington State men's cross country team to a seventh-place finish while Vallery Korir finished 19th in the women's race at the NCAA West Region Cross Country Championships Friday at Seattle's Jefferson Park Golf Course.
 
Williams, a senior from Richland, Wash., finished 12th on the 10,000 meters course in a time of 29 minutes 48.3 seconds, improving on his 17th-place finish in 2016. He had the lead from the 2000 meters split through the 6k split but fell back in the final 4000 meters. His 12th-place finish earned him All-Region honors for the second consecutive year. Williams claimed 2016 All-America honors after his 30th-place finish at NCAA Championships.
 
Teigen, a junior from Anatone, Wash., finished 20th in a time of 29:55.2. Teigen was 48th at the 2k split and raced up to 33rd at the course's halfway point. He continued his move toward the lead pack and was 30 at the 6k and 29th at the 8k mark. Teigen was the top WSU placer at this year's Pac-12 Championships with ninth place.
 
Scoring for the WSU men were Nathan Wadhwani in 41st in a time of 30:19.6, Justin Janke at 47th in 30:38.5, and Paul Ryan at 74th in 31:07.5. A pair of Cougars also racing Friday and their finishes were Matthew Watkins 84th (31:13.6) and Jake Finney 114th (31:58.0).
 
University of Portland sophomore Emmanuel Roudolff-Levisse won the individual title in a time of 29:33.1 with his UP teammate Jeff Thies taking second place and leading the USTFCCCA nationally-ranked No. 6 Portland to the team title with a score of 63. No. 20 Washington scored 65 for second place followed by No. 4 Stanford, the 2017 Pac-12 Champions, with 85. Fourth place went to No. 13 Oregon (149), followed by No. 10 UCLA (164), No. 26 Boise State (168) and in seventh, No. 27 WSU (194). There were 207 men racing on 30 teams at the West Region meet.
 
The WSU men's team is looking for its third consecutive at-large invitation to the NCAA Championships. The Cougars finished 14th last year at the national meet with Williams, Teigen, Wadhwani and Ryan competing on that squad.
 
Korir, a junior from Iten, Kenya, who transferred to WSU in January of 2017, ran the 6000 meters course in a time of 20:07.8 for 19th place and All-Region honors. During the race, Korir was 12th at the 2k split, 13th at the 3k split and tied for 16th at the 5k split. Korir was the top Cougars woman finisher at this year's Pac-12 Championships at 13th. WSU senior Devon Bortfeld finished 48th in a time of 20:50.4. The WSU women scoring included Melissa Hurska 106th (21:43.7), Josie Brown 113th (21:51.0), and Marie Gaudin 140th (22:11.7). Other Cougars women racing included Kiyena Beatty 144th (22.15.2) and Samantha King-Shaw 155th (22:24.1).
 
Charlotte Taylor, a senior at the University of San Francisco, won the individual title with a time of 19:14.2. There were 240 women racing Friday at the NCAA West Region Championships. USTFCCCA nationally-ranked No. 4 San Francisco claimed the team title with 59 points, followed by No. 7 Stanford with 76 and No. 3 Oregon with 92. WSU finished 15th out of 36 teams in the women's standings with 420 points.
 
"This wasn't exactly the performance for which we were looking but I believe we did enough to advance our men's team and Vallery to national championships," WSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Wayne Phipps said. "Vallery ran a very smart race and put herself in qualifying position the entire race. The men closed very well in the last kilometer but we need to be a little closer to the lead pack going into the final 2000 meters. I?t is so difficult to advance to national meet in cross country so we do feel good about that but we have much higher goals than just advancing to the national meet. The great thing now is that we have put ourselves in a position to still accomplish our goals. We have yet to run a complete race but we have all of the tools to be a top 10 team and for Vallery to be an all-American."
 
The top two teams in the Region meets received automatic bids to the NCAA Cross Country Championships, Nov. 18, at Sawyer Park in Louisville, Ky. The NCAA will announce at-large bids for teams and individuals Sun., Nov. 12.