PORTLAND, Ore. — Head coach David Hepburn estimates at least 10 members of his Portland State men's cross country team shared one hotel room the night before the NCAA West Regional.
 
No, this wasn't the hotel snafu of all hotel snafus. The 10 runners weren't even racing the next day. Instead, they chose to come up to Colfax, Wash. – site of this year's NCAA West Regional – on their own dime to cheer on their teammates.
 
"They all piled into a van and all stayed in one hotel room. All 10 of them," Hepburn said of his athletes. "There was a ton of them. I was like, 'what?! Okay.' It was fun to see and have our whole team, basically, show up to cheer us on."
 
The epic smell of dude the next day in that hotel room must have been something fierce. The act itself, however, smelled great to Hepburn and his staff. It wasn't an isolated incident, either. A car full of Viking women's runners also made the trek over to Colfax, Wash., to cheer on their teammates, while recent alum Sarah Medved drove through night to be there.
 
The show of support was the perfect example of team culture that Hepburn hopes to build on the Park Blocks. The Vikings have grown their numbers in each of the past two years since shifting to a distance focus. That made depth the buzzword for the Vikings going into the 2019 cross country season, but the buzzword coming out of the season is simple.
 
Culture
 

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The Vikings produced great things in 2019 – a program-best finish at the Big Sky Championships for the Viking men, all-time great performances for the Viking women – but it's the cultural change that has Hepburn and the rest of the Viking coaches most excited for what's ahead.
 
The late-night driving (not something Viking coaches want their athletes to do regularly, mind you) was only one example of it. The more consistent example came in training, where the Vikings – still with only two recruiting classes since the distance shift – finally had the numbers needed to build out their training groups.
 
"We had some really good training groups this year," Hepburn said. "In the past, we didn't have training groups. It'd be like one guy running a workout at a pace and his training partner was the clock. This season, we had training partners who could push each other.
 
"That gives [a runner] confidence that when your training partner is running those times, you should be running those times. And if you're feeling weak on a day, you can latch onto them. If you're feeling strong on a day, then you can lead that training group."
 
The training groups made for enviable depth for the Viking men. Five different runners led the Viking men at the six meets at which the Vikings' top runners competed. Additionally, no runners on the men's side were locked into their positions in the Vikings' lineup as the team's five scorers shuffled around at every meet.
 
Hepburn said that made it difficult for him to pick seven-runner lineups that would compete at conference and regionals. Bitterness over those decisions never entered the culture of the team, however.
 
"One of the highlights this season was watching guys who were say eight, nine, 10, 11, cheering on the guy who got that seventh spot. And being super happy for him and cheering him on, and not feeling super angry or upset that they weren't that guy. They're just ready to go. That's really indicative of a strong team culture," Hepburn said.
 
Another sign of a good team culture came in how the Vikings competed throughout the season, especially at regionals. The men, running their only 10k of the season, took some gambles at the regional that paid off as they picked off runners that went out to fast.
 
"The fellas just took the watches off and really went after it," Hepburn said of the men's team. "It was fun to watch. They really pushed themselves and ran outside of their comfort level and took some chances. It was really fun to watch, and fun to watch the toughness of a couple of the guys who did take those chances. I think they surprised themselves even a little bit."
 
In particular, Luke Ramirez, who is a middle distance runner during the track season, impressed Hepburn by finishing fourth in the Vikings' lineup at 117th overall. Ramirez finished 175th overall as a freshman at the regional meet, meaning he improved his finish by 58 spots from year to year.
 
The women, meanwhile, showed the grit they had all season at regionals. A series of injuries meant the Viking women were constantly searching for a fifth runner to join their top four and close out the team score. Different runners stepped up at each meet, however, while the Vikings' top four were steady throughout the season despite three of them being sophomores, and all four being in their second year on the Park Blocks.
 
"There was a lot of grit out there [at regionals]," Hepburn said. "We were kind of banged up on the women's side, but they just raced really hard and were just really tough throughout the whole thing. That meet was kind of the culmination of the women's team just kind of being tough. Gritty. Putting their head down and just doing the work. Doing what they're supposed to do and racing well."
 
Sophomore Hunter Storm and junior Delaney White finished 1-2 for the Viking women at regionals, just as they had all season. Storm and White placed 70th and 72nd, respectively, making them only the fourth pair of Viking women's runners to place in the top 75 together at the NCAA West Regional.
 
Storm's finish at regionals marked a huge jump from her freshman season, when she placed 77 spots lower at 147th overall. Storm and fellow sophomores Phoebe Jacques and Phoebe Brown made significant jumps in their second years on the Park Blocks, and all three will return alongside White next season.
 
"Our women's team's top four were really consistent and solid all year, which is just a great indicator of a long-term commitment to distance running and this program," Hepburn said. "And the fact that we're getting all of them back – all four of them are coming back next year. And we're getting all the people back that probably should have been mixed up with them. "Next year, our girls team should be like the guys team in having that depth, being able to push each other, and making it a tough decision on me as to who is going to be number eight."
 
Outside of regionals, Storm came within 3.3 seconds of the school record in the 6k when she finished in 20:51.4 at the Bronco Invitational on Oct. 19. Storm also moved into the top five all time in the 4,000 meters with a time of 14:24.4 at the season-opening Viking Rust Buster.
 
White, like Storm, entered the all-time top 10 in the 4k and 6k during the season between her finishes at the Bronco Invitational (21:08.0) and Viking Rust Buster (14:42.2).
 
"Dee and Hunter both really kind of broke out at the end of the season. They raced really well as a tandem. Helped each other, fed off each other," Hepburn said of the pair. "That was really kind of fun to watch them progress because they didn't start the year that way. They sort of just found themselves together and started racing together and started becoming a 1-2 punch and could very well be the Kaila and Sarah [Kaila Gibson and Sarah Medved, who finished ninth and 10th, respectively, at the Big Sky meet in 2018] next year."
 
Jacques, meanwhile, ran third in the Vikings' lineup at the final five meets at which she competed, including the Big Sky Championships and NCAA West Regional. Brown ran fourth or better at five of the six meets at which she competed, and set personal bests in the 4k, 5k and 6k during the season. Brown lowered her 6k personal best at all three meets at which she ran the distance this season.
 
"Consistency-wise, Phoebe Jacques is always just Mrs. Consistency. Phoebe Brown obviously put in a ton of work over the summer and just got so much better from last year to this year. I mean, night and day. She's obviously put in a ton of work," Hepburn said.
 

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The men's team loses Tom Richardson, who led the team at the Big Sky Championships and NCAA West Regional. The Vikings also lose Jason Rae, who finished third or better in the team's lineup in the first four meets of the season.
 
Five of the Vikings' seven runners at the NCAA West Regional were freshmen or sophomores, however, and that doesn't even include several runners who didn't run for the Vikings this season but will be a year older and have a year more of training under their belts next fall.
 
"Everybody's young. Everybody's coming back. That's a huge thing. Everybody is getting a lot more race experience. They're putting in the time that it takes to be a decent distance runner," Hepburn said.
 
"Aerobic development takes time. It's not something you can quick-fix. It's a commitment to a program and a process. The team that we have out there is doing that. It's apparent. And the more they're into it, the better they will become."
 
And the fact that the team remains hungry is yet another sign of the emerging team culture. As much as the shuffling in the Vikings' top five showed good depth, it also likely meant the Vikings never got everyone running their best race at the same meet this season.
 
Regionals, for instance, was both a meet to be proud of for the Viking men, and one that showed what could have been. The Vikings placed three runners in the top 100 for only the second time in program history, and placed in the top 20 for the first time since 2003. At the same time, the Vikings were only 46 points out of 13th place, and only four points from finishing 18th, which would have marked the program's best finish relative to the size of the field.
 
"We're definitely hungry. We feel like some stuff was left on the table," Hepburn said. "We've obviously taken some steps forward two years in a row. Big steps this year. The expectation for next year is to take another step forward.
 
"We had some standout performances and some guys did really well, but even they were like 'ah, yeah. I had more in the tank. I'm ready to go.' They're really buying into the process of it all now."
 
That buy-in doesn't happen without a strong team culture to buy into.
 
Although, maybe spring for two rooms next year.