2016 West Coast Conference Championships
Friday, Oct. 28 | Tecolote Shores Park | San Diego
Women's 6K: 10 a.m. | Men's 8K: 11 a.m.
Championships Central | Watch | Results

The San Francisco men's and women's cross country season begin their most important stretch of the fall, and the Dons enter the postseason with momentum to reach the podium at the West Coast Conference Championships.

"The championship season is what we work all year for and this is when the fun really starts," explained USF head coach Helen Lehman-Winters. "Rankings no longer mean anything, and it is all about getting it done on the day.  After our run two weeks ago at Wisconsin and PreNats, we feel we have some very good momentum going into this weekend."

Held for the first time on at Tecolote Shores Park, USF's women enter the starting lineup with a No. 13 national ranking and a hunger to rise back to first place in the league after a two-year hiatus. The Dons run their largest lineup at the conference meet, with nine women challenging the course in San Diego.

Three Dons finished in last year's Top 10 at the meet, Elena Burkard, Weronika Pyzik and Charlotte Taylor. Taylor has been on a tear for USF this season, pacing the Dons in each of the squad's three races with a trio of Top 10 finishes, individually. Also returning from last year's NCAA Championships qualifying team are Tatjana Schulte and Daryl Phill. Marie Bouchard, Isabelle Brauer, Frederique Latraverse, and Magdalena Dias will round out the competitors for USF. For Brauer, the race will be her first in a cross country uniform.

Along with a stout lineup from USF, the No. 13 Dons will take on two of the Top 20 teams in the country in No. 8 Portland and No. 20 BYU.

"We will line up the deepest group of women in program history and we are really looking forward to battling two very good teams to battle in both Portland and BYU," said Lehman-Winters. "We are happy that we have the opportunity to run nine women as even selecting nine from our deep squad was not an easy task. This group knows how to get it done and I have no doubt that this will be the best WCC women's race in conference history."

The men's starting seven is riding the high from a successful race at Pre-Nationals where Alex Short earned a seventh-place showing individually and the Dons took ninth in the field of 40 of the top teams across the country. Joining 2015 All-WCC competitor Short on the line is a foursome that returns to the WCC Championships this season, Mohamed Aziz, Caleb McClain, Ryan Driscoll and Edward Shepherd. Ben Alcock and Hugh Nicklason round out the lineup and will be tasting their first experience at the conference meet on Friday.

"This squad gained valuable experience last year and we are just now starting to put things together," noted Lehman-Winters. "We gained some confidence after our last outing, and this weekend we plan to continue working on things we need to be successful at the region meet in two weeks. BYU and Portland will duke it out and we just plan on doing a good job with race execution."

The women will hit the course first, taking off in the 6K distance at 10 a.m., followed by the men's 8K at 11 a.m. Fans can follow along on social media using the #WCCchamps hashtag. For the sixth consecutive year, the event will be streamed live on theW.tv with broadcasters George Devine and Josh Muxon on the call from the course.