SAN MATEO, Calif. – Some of the nation’s fastest student-athletes descend on Fernhill Park in Portland, Ore., on Friday, Oct. 28, for the 2022 West Coast Conference Cross Country Championships. Three nationally-ranked men’s and women’s programs will vie for the team title, led by BYU, which boasts top-five ranked men's and women's teams.
 
The women’s 6K race starts at 10:00 a.m. PT and the men’s 8K race begins at 11:00 a.m. If you can’t make it to the course in person, both championships and the awards ceremony will be streamed live on the WCC Network
 
2022 WCC CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
WOMEN’S RACE (6K) – 10:00 AM PT
MEN’S RACE (8K) – 11:00 AM PT
AWARDS CEREMONY – 12:00 PM PT
 
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY RANKINGS
No. 5 BYU
RV San Francisco
 
BYU leads the way in the latest USTFCCCA rankings, coming in at No. 5 nationally and third in the Mountain Region. The Cougars have been the highest-ranked WCC squad all season. San Francisco is also receiving votes in the latest national polls.

In the last weekend of competition during the regular season, multiple WCC sqauds competed at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Wisconsin and at the Bronco Invitational on Oct. 15. BYU's Aubrey Frentheway picked up University Credit Union WCC Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week honors with her 11th-place finish (20:06.6) at the Nuttycombe. It was her 15th career 15th-place finish. Her teammate, McKenna Lee, placed 15th (20:11.6). As a team, BYU placed fourth in the competition that featured multiple top-nationally ranked squads. Also competing at the Nuttycombe, Portland finished 33rd and Gonzaga 36th. At the Bronco Invitational, San Francisco's Ruby Smee, a WCC Runner of the Week this season, won the race with a time of 19:36.2. WCC runners featured three of the top-10 spots, as Saint Mary's Rayna Stanziano placed eighth (20:06.3) and fellow Don Grace Copeland finished ninth (20:14.1). USF also finished first in the team standings, while host Santa Clara came in third. 

Prior to coming in fourth at the Nuttycombe, BYU boasts three top-3 finishes during the season, including winning the Run Elite Program Cross Classic on Sept. 9. Gonzaga started the season start with back-to-back first-place finshes. The Dons opened the 2022 campaign winning the USF Invitational. They also took fifth at the San Francisco State Invitational. Gonzaga opened the year ranked No. 23 in the national polls, moving up to No. 21 at one point, before slipping out of the ranking in the final poll. The Zags have claimed first place once this year, along with two second-place finishes and the Bulldogs took fifth at the Beantown Classic on Sept. 23. 

2022 University Credit Union WCC Women's Cross Country Runners Of The Week
September 6: Ruby Smee, San Francisco
September 13: Kristen Garcia, Gonzaga
September 20: Megan LaCamera, Pepperdine
September 27: Laura Pellicoro, Portland
October 4: Rayna Stanziano, Saint Mary's
October 11: Kira Gupta Baltazar, San Francisco
October 18: Aubrey Frentheway, BYU

In 2021, the BYU men and women swept the Conference Championships for the fourth consecutive year. The women won their fourth straight title on the 6K course, followed by the men’s team claiming the hardware for a seventh straight season. Individually, Whittni Orton, the 2019 WCC individual champion, won her second conference individual title, while Conner Mantz won an unprecedented third straight WCC crown.

The last time a non-BYU WCC team took the men's conference crown was USF in 2017. Portland's Anna Pataki was the last non-BYU men's runner to win the individual title in 2020-21. BYU has claimed three of the last four individual championships. The Pilots lead the way with 20 all-time WCC Championships. USF has won six, while BYU has won five.