Solomon Kipchoge, Rosemary Longisa Claim Individual Titles For Washington State

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Photos by Ken Martinez

RESULTS | Automatic Team Qualifiers - Oregon men, Cal Baptist men; Stanford women, Oregon women

The NCAA West regional in Sacramento on Friday included a storyline of who was on the starting line, and who wasn't.

Stanford's Amy Bunnage competed for the first time since March and finished fourth to help the Cardinal defeat No. 4 Oregon, 66-75, for the regional title. Both teams automatically advanced to next week's NCAA Cross Country Championships in Columbia, Mo., which is what truly mattered. 

Bunnage, who was fourth at last year's NCAA Cross Country Championships, helped power the Cardinal to a momentum-building win. Sophia Kennedy was right behind Bunnage in fifth and Mena Scatchard was 10th. Riley Stewart was the team's third runner in 18th. 

Oregon held out Big Ten runner-up Juliet Cherubet and fifth-place finisher Dalia Frias and the Ducks were still able to put four in the top 12. Diana Cherotich finished second behind Washington State's Rosemary Longisa, who covered 6,000 meters in 19:08.3.

Silan Ayyilidiz was third for Oregon, Annika Thompson was ninth and Mia Barnett was 12th. After that it was a 50-second wait for Ali Ince in 49th. 

Boise State, Washington State and Washington are next in line for at-large berths and will find out their fate on Saturday. 

The No. 7 Oregon men won their first West region title since 2014 and put all seven members of its lineup in the top 35. 

Big Ten champion Abdel Laadjel finished sixth to lead the Ducks. Simeon Birnbaum was seventh, Aiden Smith was eighth and Michael Mireles was 11th. 

Cal Baptist put four runners between 13th (Valentin Soca) and 21st and scored 95 points, edging out Washington State for the second auto bid. 

The Cougars went 1-2 at the front with Solomon Kipchoge running like an NCAA title contender and taking the 10-kilometer victory in 28:54.4 and teammates Evans Kurui taking second in 29:23.1.

Leo Young of Stanford placed third, Meshack Kuyo of Boise State was fourth and Jonas Price of Portland finished fifth. 

Boise State finished fourth, Portland was fifth and Stanford was sixth. Those schools await their NCAA fates on Saturday.