Kimpel leads Cougars to eighth place finish at Notre Dame...

SOUTH BEND, Indiana-- The 29th-ranked Washington State men's cross country team, led by Andrew Kimpel (left/photo by Paul Merca) and Andrew Gonzales, took eighth place in the team standings for the Blue race at the 57th annual Notre Dame Invitational meet Friday, while the WSU women's team finished 18th.

Kimpel, a senior from Spokane, was the first Cougar to cross the finish line in 29th place with a time of 24:20 on the five-mile course. Andrew Gonzales finished 30th also in a time of 24.20. The rest of the scoring Cougar men included Todd Wakefield 52nd (24:32), Lee George 54th (24:33), and Drew Jordan 65th (24:38). Other WSU men racing were Forrest Shaffer 118th (25:20) and Richard Shroy 158th (26:47).

Chris O'Hare won the Blue race individual title (23:33) and led the No. 20 Tulsa men to the team title with 104 points. Top men's team placings were: No. 17 Princeton (139), No. 11 Notre Dame (143), No. 10 Florida State (152), No. 25 Eastern Kentucky (167), No. 21 New Mexico (200), No. 14 Texas A&M (201), and No. 29 WSU (230). WSU finished ahead of a pair of ranked teams in No. 11 North Carolina State (10th) and No. 26 Michigan (19th).

"The men's team was better than two ranked teams and only higher ranked teams finished ahead of us but we were hoping to get back to the top five this year," Cougar Cross Country Coach Tim Riley said. "Drew Jordan had an off day and Kimpel was not feeling his best so with those two at their best we would have reached that top five finish. We learned some things and we have to get back to training again."

Caroline Austin was the top Cougar woman to finish, running the 5k in a time of 17:25 for 45th place overall. The Cougar women scoring were: Ruby Roberts 112th (18:12), Emily Dwyer 125th (18:31), Courtney Zalud 130th (18:43), and Abby Knight 139th (19:08). 

Other Cougars competing were Kiah Condos 141st (19:26), CharLee Linton 142nd (19:33), Marisa Stoick 144th (19:59), and Amanda Henderson 145th (20:16).

Results from the Notre Dame Invitational are available here.

In Missoula, the Eastern Washington University men’s and women’s cross country teams fought through the poor air quality levels at the Montana Invitational Friday, as the men and women both placed fourth.

The women scored 91 points while the men scored 102. Montana State won on both the men's and women's sides, with the women scoring 19 and the men scoring a perfect 15 by having the first seven finishers.

“We were looking for some small wins from this meet overall and we did meet some of those,” head coach Chris Zeller said. “However, the smoke and air quality definitely hindered the races a bit for us.”

True freshman David Thor led the way for the Eagles for the third-straight meet, placing eighth with a time of 26:16 on the 8,000-meter course. Aside from the Montana State sweep, Thor finished ahead of all runners from both Montana and North Dakota. Nathan Fall (28th, 28:36) and Quin Olivas (29th, 29:08) were the next two runners behind Thor. Rounding out the top five for Eastern was Isaac Seward (31st, 29:35) and Brandon Nobach (33rd, 33:29).

On the women's side, Berenice Penaloza placed 11th, covering the 5,000-meter course in 18:44 and scoring eight points for the Eagles. Finishing behind Penaloza was Danie Moon (27th, 20:10), Acacia Smith (29th, 20:20), Jessi Johnson (30th, 20:22), Monica Jaenicke (32nd, 21:04) and Lauren Brewington (33rd, 21:30).

“Berenice had a nice breakthrough,” Zeller said. “She was competitive and not afraid to go with the lead pack.”


Results from the Montana Invitational are available here.

NOTE: The sports information offices at Washington State University and Eastern Washington University contributed to this report.

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