PORTLAND, Ore. --- The Portland Pilots men's and women's nationally ranked cross country teams will head to San Diego, Calif., on Friday to compete in the 2016 West Coast Conference Cross Country Championships at Mission Bay Park.
 
The Championships will begin with the women's 6K at 10:00 a.m. No. 8 Portland will face some nationally ranked conference opponents, including No. 13 San Francisco and No. 20 BYU. Loyola Marymount ranks regionally at No. 14 in the West. The Portland women will consist of the same squad which earned a fifth-place finish at the recent NCAA Pre-nationals. Sophomore Courtney Cox and senior Lindsay Tompkins will also run for the Pilots, who are led by the WCC's Cross Country Runner of the Month Lauren LaRocco. The junior has ranked as high as No. 6 in the nation individually this season according the FloTrack, after her third-place finish at the Roy Griak Invite.
 
"We are really excited for this Friday's meet," said head coach Ian Solof. "It will be a very tight battle with USF and BYU, both excellent teams, so I expect the scores to be extremely close. As always, we will be focused on running our own race and being tough."
 
The Portland men will follow the women, competing in the 8K race at 11:00 a.m. The No. 12 Pilots' top competitor is nationally ranked No. 4 BYU. Gonzaga and Saint Mary's rank regionally at No. 11 and No. 15 in the West. Portland will run the same group which took seventh place at the elite Nuttycombe Invite a few weeks ago. Caleb Webb and Danny Martinez, who helped the team win the prestigious Roy Griak Invite, and Logan Orndorf, who finished third at the Dellinger Invite to lead Portland to the team title, will also be competing for the Pilots in San Diego.
 
"BYU is the prohibitive favorite ranked at No. 4 nationally, but we are looking forward to battling it out like we always do," said head coach Rob Conner.
 
Both the men's and women's races will be streamed live on theW.tv.