Trio of Huskies to compete at USA Cross Country Championships in San Diego Saturday

The University of Washington will send three runners to San Diego for Saturday’s USA Junior Cross Country Championships at Mission Bay Park, starting at 11:45 am .

Washington will line up freshmen Lauren Saylor (left, /photo by Paul Merca), Dayna Anderson, and Kenna Patrick in the junior womens (19-under) national championship race over six kilometers (3.74 miles).

At stake are spots for the top six finishers on Team USA for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships next month in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Saylor (Buchanan HS/Clovis, Calif.) competed in all of the Huskies’ cross country meets this past fall, including the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana, where she was part of the Huskies’ squad that finished eighth, the highest in school history.

Saylor finished 41st in the Pac-10 meet (21:27) in Corvallis, Oregon on October 27th; 61st in the NCAA west regionals (21:47) in Springfield, Oregon on November 10th, and 253rd (24:25) in the NCAA meet.

Anderson (University HS/San Diego) returns home to compete for the Huskies at the junior national championships. She is no stranger to this meet, as Anderson finished 28th at junior nationals in Boulder, Colorado in 2007.

Joining Anderson and Saylor is Husky newcomer Kenna Patrick (Thomas Jefferson/Federal Way), who transferred to Washington after competing this fall for the University of Puget Sound.

Patrick, a former Washington state 4A harrier champ at Thomas Jefferson, finished 51st in the NCAA Division III championships last fall for the Loggers.

Eastern Washington University junior Paul Limpf (Evergreen HS/Vancouver) will compete in the senior men’s 12-kilometer championships. Other significant runners with Washington ties competing in the meet include the University of Portland’s Michael Kilburg (O’Dea HS); UCLA’s Alex Crabill (Charles Wright Academy); and, former Tacoma prep standout Joe Gray in the men’s 12k.

Highlights of the USA Cross Country Championships will be shown on February 24th from 5-7 pm, eastern time on ESPN2, in association with the AT&T USA Indoor Track & Field Championships.

For more information on the USA Cross Country Championships, please visit www.usatf.org.