TUCSON, Ariz. – The University of Arizona men's and women's cross country teams are set to travel to Colfax, Wash. for the annual Pac-12 Cross Country Championships, which will take place at The Colfax Golf Club on Friday, Oct. 30 starting with the men's race at 10:30 a.m. MST. The men will be running the 8K race while the women will be running the 6K race starting at 11:30 a.m. MST.
“This will be a challenge for us because the Pac-12 is arguably the best conference in the country,” head cross country coach James Li said. “I hope both teams have their best races of the year and we will try to finish as high as possible and for the teams to gain some good experience. It is always exciting to come here since the conference is so competitive.”
Competing for the men will be Matthew Beer, Jeff Gautreau, Collins Kibet, Patrick Leary, Jonas Legernes, Seamus White and Sam Willis. The women will be represented by Molly Callahan, Kayla Ferron, McKenna Gaffney, Claire Green, Kate Penney, Kirsten Vergara and Addi Zerrenner.
The men are coming off a second-place finish at the ASU Cross Country Invitational and were led by Leary, who took fourth place with a four-mile time of 20:56.3.
Kibet has been the steadiest Wildcat this season as he has been Arizona's top finisher in the last three meets he has competed in. He has finished in the top five overall in his last two meets as well. Willis has also been one of Arizona's top runners this season as he has been the second-best finisher in all three races he has competed in. He took 13th place overall at the Dave Murray Invitational back in September.
Last year at the Pac-12 Championships, Arizona took eighth place and were led by former Wildcat Sam Macaluso, who finished in 29th place. Kibet finished just behind Macaluso as he took 30th place with an 8K time of 24:26.
The women are also coming off a second-place finish at the ASU Cross Country Invitational. Ferron was Arizona's top runner as she took first place overall with a three-mile time of 17:46.5.
Callahan, Green and Zerrenner have been solid for the Wildcats all season. Callahan has come on strong as of late as she took first place overall at the U of A Cross Country Twilight and sixth place at the NCAA Pre-Nationals unseeded race. Green has never finished worse than 24th overall in the four races she has competed in and has finished in the top-four three times. Zerrenner has finished in the top-23 in all five races and has been Arizona's top finisher in three of those meets.
The women's side also took eighth place at the Pac-12 Championships last year and were led by Kristina Aubert, who finished in 30th place. Callahan was Arizona's second-best finisher as she clocked a 6K time of 21:09 and earned a 32nd-place finish.
The meet will be tape-delayed on the Pac-12 Championships and it will be aired on Monday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. MST. See real-time splits and who crosses the line first for the men's and women's races with live stats updated on the Pac-12 website (www.pac-12.com) on the cross country championships page (http://pac-12.com/cross-country/championships). Stats are unofficial until after the championships conclude, when official final results for both races will be available on the championship page and arizonawildcats.com.
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