Kendra Schaaf to sit out NCAA West Regionals...

In a move which many Husky insiders felt was not surprising, considering the unprecedented team victory two weeks in Springfield, Oregon, Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times reports in Friday's edition that Washington coach Greg Metcalf will sit out freshman Pac-10 cross country champion Kendra Schaaf (left/photo by Paul Merca) for Saturday's NCAA West Regional meet in Palo Alto.

"We are not going to bomb," he said. "We're going to run well."

The Huskies, undefeated and winners of their first Pac-10 title since 1989, will ease up in the regional meet, though. Metcalf will take nine runners to the meet, but Schaaf and one other runner to be determined will not run Saturday.

Metcalf said he wants to rest Schaaf, who is healthy, for the national meet. He's not concerned about the Huskies qualifying for the NCAA championships in Terre Haute, Ind. The top two teams from each regional automatically advance, and the remaining field is selected by 13 at-large bids based on a point system. The Huskies have defeated enough tough competition, including second-ranked Oregon, to give them confidence.

"We'd like to have a relaxed meet," Metcalf said. "The only pressure would be qualifying for the next meet. If we do our thing, we have a shot to win, but we're going to change our personnel a little bit. We have great team depth, which allows us to make those decisions. Reality says if we're in the top five, we're still going to get to the national meet."

For those wondering about the rationale, Schaaf raced until the end of July at the junior world track & field championships in Poland, and the Canadian junior nationals. To date, Metcalf has sat out Christine Babcock & Katie Follett (Sundodger), along with Amanda Miller & Michelle Turner (Pre-Nationals) from his core group.

Here's Washington's full season stats page...

To read the full story from the Seattle Times, click here...