Portland State Cross Country Meet Notes

portland state cross country

Contact: Andy Jobanek, Assistant Media Relations Director (XC) • Email: [email protected] • Phone: (503) 725-2525 2019 SCHEDULE VIKING RUST BUSTER Sept. 7 | M6K: 9 a.m. (PT); W4K: 9:30 a.m. (PT) September Blue Lake Park | Fairview, Ore. 7 Viking Rust Buster M6K: 9am; W4K: 9:30am MEET SCHEDULE PORTLAND STATE ENTRIES 13 Cougar Classic W6K: 5:15pm; Race Time Men: Jacob Emeterio, Liam Jemison, Cody M8K: 5:45pm Men’s 6K 9 a.m. (PT) Jones, Nigel Leonis, Chase Lovercheck, Max Women’s 4K 9:30 a.m. (PT) Norman, Jason Rae, Luke Ramirez, Drew Se- October idel, Andy Solano, Erik Solano, Andrew Staf- 5 Charles Bowles Invite M8K: 9:30am; ford W6K: 10:20am Women: Zoe Andersen, Phoebe Brown, Zoe 19 Bronco Invitational M8K: 8:45am; Eberspecher, Saville Feist, Phoebe Jacques, W6K: 9:30am Carissa Rodriguez, Monica Salazar, Hunter 19 Warner Pacific Classic TBA Storm, Hannah Tomeo, Kristen Walker, Del- November aney White 2 Big Sky Championships TBA 9 Beaver Classic W6K: 11am; MEET NOTES M8K: 12pm 15 NCAA West Regional TBA PORTLAND, Ore. — In 2018, the Portland State cross country program competed with 28 runners who had one letter of collegiate experience or less between its men’s and women’s teams. Bold - Home Meet (at Blue Lake Park) In 2019, that number will grow to 33.

QUICK FACTS And yet, while the Viking women will be significantly younger this season without last season’s PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY senior standouts Kaila Gibson and Sarah Medved, head coach David Hepburn says he’s optimistic Location______Portland, Ore. that this season could surpass last as the best combined year between the men’s and women’s Address______930 SW Hall St,_ teams in program history. ______Portland, OR, 97201 Phone / Fax____(503) 725-4000 / (503) 725-5550 “We don’t have the low stick [a runner who places high and scores few points], but we also don’t Founded______1946 (4-year in 1955) have the bottom rung stuff either,” Hepburn said of his teams. “We have much tighter gaps.” Enrollment______28,407 Nickname______Vikings Tighter gaps could especially help the Viking men, who may be in line for their strongest season Colors______Green (PMS 3435 C), as a Division I program. The men posted their best finish at the NCAA West Regional in 15 years ______White and Silver (PMS 429 C) while placing 21st at the meet last season. Additionally, the Vikings recorded their second-best Affiliation / Conf.____NCAA Division I / Big Sky finish ever at the Big Sky Conference meet, relative to the size of the field, while placing eighth Arena (Capacity)______Viking Pavilion (3,094) out of 11 teams. Interim President______Stephen Percy Director of Athletics______Valerie Cleary The Vikings accomplished both of those feats with four freshmen in their top seven. This season, Associate AD/SWA______Dana Cappelucci the Viking men return their entire top seven from last season’s championship meets, and the team added a deep class of talented newcomers, who should push the returners to improve TEAM INFORMANTION even more. Head Coach______David Hepburn Year______3rd as HC / 5th overall “The year of aerobic development is really what’s going to help because everyone was so young Assistant Coach______Josh Seitz_ [last year],” Hepburn said of the returning runners on the men’s side. “That’s really what’s going Year______4th_ to help us the best. Also the fact that the 8k is no longer a big, scary race. Last year, everybody’s Assistant Coach______Griffin Humphreys_ a freshman, the 8k is a big, scary race. Now all of a sudden they’re like ‘yeah, we know what it’s Year______3rd all about.’” Volunteer Asst. Coach______Colleen Quigley_ Year______3rd Max Norman and Drew Seidel were a solid 1-2 punch for the Viking men as freshmen last sea- Volunteer Asst. Coach______Stephanie Ross son, and Hepburn says the pair should lead by example once again. Seidel placed as the Vikings’ Year______1st top runner at the first four meets of the season before Norman, who didn’t compete until the middle of October last season, came in and led the Vikings at the Big Sky and NCAA West Re- SOCIAL MEDIA gional meets. Norman and Seidel placed 98th and 99th at the NCAA West Regional last season, making them /psuviksTF & /psuviks the first pair of freshmen men’s runner at Portland State to place in the top 100 together at the meet. The Viking men hadn’t placed two runners of any classification in the top 100 since 2003, @psuviksTF & @psuviks when Michael Devenport and Blake Flanders placed 56th and 93rd overall, respectively. Nor- man’s 98th-place finish also marked the highest finish by a first-year Viking men’s runner at the NCAA West Regional since Devenport placed 64th overall in 2002. @psuviksTF & @psuviks Luke Ramirez and Ian Vickstrom were the other two freshmen to compete at the championship /goviks meets for the men, and should have improved from where they were last season. Vickstrom will be coming off a strong freshmen outdoor track season in which he qualified for the USATF U20 Outdoor Championships in the 10,000 meters, after finishing in 32:02.14 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. 2019 Portland State Vikings Cross Country 1 MEET NOTES COACH HEPBURN BIO 2019 MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY ROSTER David Hepburn was Name Year Hometown Previous School promoted to head coach Jacob Emeterio R-Jr. Arroyo Grande, Calif. Arroyo Grande HS of the Portland State Matthew Frazeur Fr. Sublimity, Ore. Stayton HS cross country and track & Zach Grams Fr. Port Orchard, Wash. South Kitsap HS field programs in August Brandon Hippe Fr. Monument, Colo. Palmer Ridge HS of 2017, after spending Liam Jemison R-Jr. Portland, Ore. Grant HS that past two seasons Cody Jones R-So. Greeley, Colo. Frontier Academy HS as the Vikings’ assistant Jordan Lawrence So. Elk Grove, Calif. Franklin HS coach in charge of field Sam Lingwall Fr. Enumclaw, Wash. Enumclaw HS events and recruiting co- Chase Lovercheck So. Lagrange, Wyo. Southeast HS ordinator. Suleiman Noor Fr. Beaverton, Ore. Aloha HS An expert multi-events coach, Hep- Max Norman So. Forest Grove, Ore. Forest Grove HS burn oversaw the development of Viking Clinton Omondi Sr. Coos Bay, Ore. SW Oregon CC mutli-eventers Donté Robinson and Kristen Matt Palmer So. Phoenix, Ariz. North Canyon HS O’Handley. Robinson finished his Viking career Will Payton Jr. McMinnville, Ore. McMinnville HS as a three-time Big Sky champion in the multi- Evan Peters Fr. Greenacres, Wash. Central Valley HS events, winning the 2018 and 2019 indoor Jason Rae Sr. Portland, Ore. Colorado School of Mines heptathlon titles, as well as the 2018 outdoor Luke Ramirez So. Central Point, Ore. South Medford HS decathlon title. Robinson became only the sec- Jack Rubalcave Jr. Rifle, Colo. Rifle HS ond Big Sky athlete to repeat as conference Drew Seidel So. Wheat Ridge, Colo. Wheat Ridge HS heptathlon champion, joining fellow Viking Kelly Shedd Fr. Eugene, Ore. Sheldon HS Nick Trubachik, who won back-to-back titles Josh Snyder So. Bandon, Ore. Bandon HS in 2009 and 2010. Andy Solano Jr. Portland, Ore. Reynolds HS Hepburn has also led five Vikings to the Erik Solano Jr. Portland, Ore. Reynolds HS NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in his head Andrew Stafford R-Jr. Los Osos, Calif. Morro Bay HS coaching tenure. Sarah Medved became the Mitchell Tolander R-Fr. Eau Claire, Wis. Wayzata HS Vikings’ first-ever qualifier in the steeplechase Garrett Vasta Fr. Riverside, Calif. Martin Luther King HS in 2018, and then repeated the feat as a fifth- Ian Vickstrom So. Corvallis, Ore. Corvallis HS year senior in 2019. Medved also repeated as Zac Witman Fr. Fort Collins, Colo. Loveland HS the Big Sky champion in the steeplechase in 2019, a year after becoming the Vikings’ first- 2019 WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY ROSTER ever conference champion in the event. Name Year Hometown Previous School Kaila Gibson joined Medved at the 2019 Zoe Andersen Fr. Portland, Ore. Wilson HS NCAA West Prelims after she qualified in the Phoebe Brown So. Tillamook, Ore. Tillamook HS women’s 10,000 meters. Gibson qualified after Sammy Burke So. Wanaka, New Zealand Mount Aspiring College running the 10k in 34:12.51 at the Stanford Lina Corrales R-Fr. Castle Rock, Colo. Douglas County HS Invitational, a time that marked a 70-second Zoe Eberspecher So. Bozeman, Mont. Bozeman HS personal best for Gibson and moved her up Saville Feist Fr. Anacortes, Wash. Anacortes HS third all time in the outdoor 10k at Portland Phoebe Jacques So. Bozeman, Mont. Bozeman HS State. Sophie Jones Fr. San Diego, Calif. Mt. Carmel HS Hepburn led the Vikings to their best cross Carissa Rodriguez Fr. Fillmore, Calif. Fillmore HS country season in program history in the fall Monica Salazar So. Hillsboro, Ore. Century HS of 2018, his second year at the helm of the Cayla Seligman Sr. Issaquah, Wash. Colorado program. The Viking women tied their high- Hunter Storm So. Enumclaw, Wash. Enumclaw HS est team finish ever at the Big Sky meet with Hannah Tomeo Jr. Spokane, Wash. Mead Senior HS a fifth-place finish, after being picked to -fin Kristen Walker So. Valencia, Calif. Valencia HS ish in a tie for ninth. Additionally, the Vikings’ Nevaeh Walla Fr. Fillmore, Calif. Moorpark HS fifth-place finish came in the 11-team Big Sky Delaney White Jr. Santa Rosa, Calif. Nevada Conference, making it the Vikings’ best finish Keely Wolf Fr. Fairfield, Idaho Gooding HS ever within the conference relative to the size of the field. The Viking women followed it up MEET NOTES with a 15th-place finish at the NCAA West Re- gional, their highest finish at the meet since they placed 11th in 2002. Last year’s top seven should get a push from the newcomers, however, as Hepburn says competi- The Viking men, meanwhile, recorded tion will be fierce to place in the team’s top 10, let alone the top seven. their second-best finish ever at the Big Sky meet relative to the size of the conference, as “Obviously we need more of the low sticks but it sure is nice to be wondering who that top 10 is they placed eighth out of 11 teams after being going to be. Our talent level, we’re not here [points high], but within our talent level we’re 15 picked to finish dead last before the season. deep. We have two teams that we could line up side by side and say, ‘go at it.’ And they would The men also recorded their best finish at the go at it.”,” Hepburn said. NCAA West Regional meet since 2003 with a 21st-place finish. “I think really at the regional level is really where that’s going to show up, where we’re going to be like, ‘oh, okay. We shored up all of that huge gap.’ 98, 99 [Norman and Seidel’s finishes last year at regionals for the Viking men] and then 205? We’re not going to have that. We’re going to be like, 85 and 115 hopefully and tighten that gap up.”

Tighter bunching could also help the Viking women overcome the loss of Gibson and Medved, who were the type of low sticks Hepburn has mentioned. Gibson and Medved became the first pair of Viking teammates – men or women – to place in the top 10 together at the Big Sky meet last season. Additionally, the pair followed up by placing in the top 40 together at the NCAA West Regional, becoming the first pair of teammates to place in the top 50 together at the meet,

2 2019 Portland State Vikings Cross Country MEET NOTES COACH SEITZ BIO let alone the top 40. Josh Seitz joined Gibson exhausted her cross country eligibility last season, but she still has a year of indoor and the Portland State cross outdoor track & field so the Vikings won be without her leadership this fall. country and track & field programs as an assistant “She’s still our team captain. She’ll lead by example. She’s still training with the team. She’s with coach in charge of dis- us every step of the way. She’s just not at meets,” Hepburn said of Gibson. “That’s why we did tance events at the start the two captains. That’s why Phoebe Jacques is a captain. She’s there and she’s leading the team, of Jan. 2017. too.” Seitz has led a resur- gence in the Viking dis- Jacques was one of four freshmen in the Viking women’s top seven at the Big Sky and NCAA tance programs, as the West Regional last season. Jacques also added a strong outdoor track & field season in which she program increasingly placed seventh in the 10,000 meters at the Big Sky meet last May. focuses on the distance events. Four Viking distance runners have qualified for the NCAA “Jacques is just solid. She’s just the barometer for us,” Hepburn said of Jacques. “It’s why her and West Preliminary Rounds during Seitz’s tenure. Cody Jones [for the men] are captains. We know exactly what we’re going to get all the time. Sarah Medved became the Vikings’ first- They’re Mr. and Mrs. Consistency, and that’s fantastic. And they do everything that we ask of ever qualifier in the steeplechase in 2018, and them. They continue to progress. They don’t do anything flashy. They don’t try to get crazy with then repeated the feat as a fifth-year senior anything. That’s one of the reasons they were named captains because they’re who we want our in 2019. Medved also repeated as the Big Sky athletes to be.” champion in the steeplechase in 2019, a year after becoming the Vikings’ first-ever confer- Hunter Storm and Sammy Burke also return after running in the Vikings’ top seven freshmen ence champion in the event. last season. Junior Delaney White, who was a new transfer from Nevada last season, also returns Kaila Gibson joined Medved at the 2019 after placing as high as third in the Vikings’ lineup in 2018. NCAA West Prelims after she qualified in the women’s 10,000 meters. Gibson qualified after As far as newcomers, the Viking women added Cayla Seligman, who Hepburn hopes will be able running the 10k in 34:12.51 at the Stanford to mitigate the loss of Gibson and Medved at the top. Seligman comes from one of the best Invitational, a time that marked a 70-second programs in the country in Colorado, where she was an NCAA West Prelims qualifier in the 5,000 personal best for Gibson and moved her up meters back in 2016. third all time in the outdoor 10k at Portland State. But beyond the high finishes Seligman could produce for the Vikings, Hepburn also hopes Selig- Alex Cisneros joined Medved at the NCAA man can provide some leadership for the team, as well. Hepburn says the Vikings’ young runners West Prelims in 2018, becoming the Vikings’ will naturally look up to her after her time at Colorado. first-ever qualifier in the men’s 10,000 meters that season. “[Cayla’s] come from a very, very good program and she’s older and she’s definitely going to fill Seitz also helped lead the Vikings to their that role too. She’s got a voice and we brought her in for that reason. It was one of those things best cross country season in program history where we were like, ‘do you want to come in and help us continue to grow?’ And she was like, in 2018, his second year with the Viking cross ‘yeah,’” Hepburn said of recruiting Seligman. country teams. The Viking women tied their highest team finish ever at the Big Sky meet “We would love to be Colorado one day. So we told Cayla, ‘help us with the blueprint and we’ll with a fifth-place finish, after being picked to just keep going down that path.’ It’s been good so far. It’s been good having her around. She finish in a tie for ninth. Additionally, the Vi- likes the things that we’re doing and says that we’re going the right direction as far as her per- kings’ fifth-place finish came in the 11-team spective. Not that you’re relying on an athlete [to tell you that], but it’s cool.” Big Sky Conference, making it the Vikings’ best finish ever within the conference rela- Seligman should fill in as a natural leader for the Vikings, but Hepburn hopes more than the tive to the size of the field. The Viking women team’s captains and top performers will step up as leaders for the Vikings this season. followed it up with a 15th-place finish at the NCAA West Regional, their highest finish at “I told all the guys and ladies that every team is led from within. If I could name everybody a the meet since they placed 11th in 2002. captain, I’d name everybody a captain. Just lead. If everybody just leads, then we’re fine. Be- Seniors Kaila Gibson and Sarah Medved cause if you’re all doing the right thing, then we don’t need to worry about who’s the captain,” led the Viking women to their historic perfor- Hepburn said. mances throughout the year, as they traded off going first and second all season. Medved Hepburn includes the Viking freshmen in that, especially considering there will be 15 of them and Gibson became the first Viking teammates this season between six on the women’s side and nine on the men’s side. – male or female – to place in the top 40 together at the NCAA West Regional, just under “The guys and the girls who have come in are who we thought they were,” Hepburn said of the two weeks after they became the first Viking program’s young runners. “It’s not like, ‘oh, he or she isn’t as good as we thought.’ No, we did a teammates to place in the top 10 together at really good job picking this crew. We had some expectations about who they were and they’ve the Big Sky Conference meet. The Vikings had come in and met those expectations.” never had two runners place in the top 50 of the NCAA West Regional before Medved and Hepburn says Viking coaches will use the early meets this fall to suss out who of the freshmen Gibson, let alone the top 40. and newcomers will contribute right away and who could use a year of training under their The Viking men, meanwhile, recorded belts. their second-best finish ever at the Big Sky meet relative to the size of the conference, as That starts Saturday with the second running of the Viking Rust Buster, the program’s one home they placed eighth out of 11 teams after being meet that Hepburn and assistant coach Josh Seitz started last season. picked to finish dead last before the season. The men also recorded their best finish at the “Second year of Rust Buster is going to be a lot of fun,” Hepburn said of the season-opening NCAA West Regional meet since 2003 with a meet. “It was a lot of work last year. This year, it seems a lot easier because we know the course. 21st-place finish. We know where we’re going. Setting up the course won’t be as hard. I think there’s definitely some excitement generated from last year that’s carried over into this year. It is going to be bigger, and we’re going to try to continue to make it bigger, and hopefully it just grows every year.”

The Cougar Classic comes less than a week after the Rust Buster, as Washington State University 2019 Portland State Vikings Cross Country 3 MEET NOTES hosts the meet next Friday. The Viking women LOOKING AHEAD won the meet last season, which helped spring The Vikings head back to Colfax, Wash., for them into the success they saw at the end of the Cougar Classic, a meet the Viking wom- the season. This year, the meet serves as a pre- en won last season while upsetting a Pac-12 view of the NCAA West Regional, as WSU will school in host Washington State. Both races host the regional on the same course in No- will take place at Colfax Golf Course Friday, vember. with the women running a 6k at 5:15 p.m. (PT), while the men run an 8k at 5:45 p.m. (PT). Another successful run at the Cougar Clas- sic this season should set up the Vikings for strong returns on the back end of the season. But while the men’s and women’s teams have their own stated goals, Hepburn cautioned anybody from getting ahead of themselves before the season even starts.

“The team has their own goals. That’s for them. Our goal is always to focus on the process. It’s always our number one goal. Results will follow,” Hepburn said. “We don’t really get tied up too much in the records that we may or may not break. Obviously we can talk about them until we’re blue in the face. We may have the best men’s season in history of Portland State, but it’ll be because we focused on the process.”

The first step in that process comes Saturday, when the Vikings host the Rust Buster at Blue Lake Park in Fairview, Ore. The men kick off the meet with a 6,000-meter race at 9 a.m. (PT), while the women follow with a 4,000-meter race at 9:30 a.m. (PT).

And among those toeing the line at the meet will be the Vikings’ young runners. Some or all 33 of them.

PORTLAND STATE ENTRIES Men: Jacob Emeterio, Liam Jemison, Cody Jones, Nigel Leonis, Chase Lovercheck, Max Norman, Jason Rae, Luke Ramirez, Drew Se- idel, Andy Solano, Erik Solano, Andrew Staf- ford Women: Zoe Andersen, Phoebe Brown, Zoe Eberspecher, Saville Feist, Phoebe Jacques, Ca- rissa Rodriguez, Monica Salazar, Hunter Storm, Hannah Tomeo, Kristen Walker, Delaney White

HISTORY AT VIKING RUST BUSTER The Vikings held the first-ever Viking Rust Buster last season, with three women’s and two men’s runners cracking the top 10 for the Vikings. Kaila Gibson, Sarah Medved and Sammy Burke placed third, fifth and seventh, respectively, for the Viking women, while Gib- son’s time of 14:08.8 set a new school record in the 4k. Drew Seidel and Josh Snyder placed sixth and ninth, respectively, in the men’s 6k, with Seidel’s time of 19:00.2 moving him up to third all time in the 6k at Portland State. Zach Carpenter set the school record in the 6k with a time of 18:39.45 at the 2011 Pier Park Invi- tational, 21 seconds better than Seidel’s time last season.

As a team, the Vikings placed second out of three teams on the women’s side, finishing with 38 team points to fall 10 points shy of the winners, Oregon State, at 28. The Viking men, meanwhile, went head-to-head with the Uni- versity of Portland and placed second with 41 points to the Pilots’ winning total of 17.

4 2019 Portland State Vikings Cross Country