Event: PSU Viking Rust Buster
Host: Portland State
Dates: September 7, 2019
Location: Blue Lake Park, Fairview, Ore.
Live Stats: athletictiming.net
Video: None
 
Schedule of Events
Men's 6k: 9 a.m.
Women's 4k: 9:30 a.m.
 
THIS WEEK
• The Pilots will send select runners to compete at the PSU Viking Rust Buster at Blue Lake Park in Fairview, Ore.
• Live stats for the event can be found at athletictiming.net.
 
LAST WEEK
• Both Portland's men's and women's teams won the team titles at the Linfield Harrier Classic in McMinnville, Oregon. The men's team won with a score of 19 points, and the women with a score of 27.
• Cameron Thompson was the top finisher for the men in the 6K, claiming second place with a time of 19:34.4.
• Redshirt freshman Ellie Misuraca claimed her first individual win in the women's 4K with a time of 15:34.5.
 
2019 LOOK AHEAD
• The men return two of the seven runners that competed at Nationals in 2018, two time All-American Emmanuel Roudolff-Levisse, and the fifth-year senior Caleb Webb.
• Roudolff-Levisse was Portland's top finisher at the National meet in 2018 (21st place), and returns this year for his senior season. Earlier this year, the Pilot also won the 2019 French Cross Country National Championships.
• Caleb Webb also returns for his last season on the Bluff, and was the sixth man to finish for Portland at the NCAA Championships in 2018.
• The women are coming off of their best finish in program history with their 12th place finish at last year's NCAA Cross Country Championships.
• Coming back from the team who placed last year are returners Virag Weiler and Jasmine Fehr.
 
LAST SEASON
• The men's cross country team finished third at the 2018 NCAA Cross Country Championships, marking the third time in five years that the Pilots have finished third or better and on the podium.
• At the 2018 West Regional in Sacramento, Calif., the Portland men swept the team and individual trophies.
• Redshirt senior Nick Haguer claimed Portland's second straight individual title and lead the Pilots to their third team West Region title.
• The Pilot men's team graduated Logan Orndorf, Nick Hauger, Stuart McCallum, Michael Somers, and Noah Schutte, who were all members of last year's third place team.
• Portland men's head coach Rob Connor earned his second consecutive and sixth overall West Region Coach of the Year award in 2018. 
• Last year's seniors Lauren LaRocco and Taryn Rawlings both earned All-American honors while leading the Pilot's women's team to their best finish in program history at the 2018 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
• The women's team will be without LaRocco and Rawlings in 2019, in addition to recently graduated team members Becca Howard, Aoibhe Richardson, and Courtney Cox.
• On the academic side, six Pilots combined from the men's and women's teams were named USTFCCCA All-Academic. Noah Schutte was also named to the 2019 Google Cloud Academic West All-District® Men's Track & Field/Cross Country team, for the second year in a row.
 
PILOTS IN THE POLLS
• In the USTFCCCA Preseason Regional Poll, the men rank No.2 in the West region, while the women rank No.10.