Tough day for both UW & WSU at Pre-Nationals...
At the halfway point, Washington was fourth overall, but with Campbell out of the mix UW ended up ninth out of 38 teams in the field with 352 points. Third-ranked Florida State got the win with 115 points.
The Huskies, who ran without freshman Megan Goethals, were led by senior All-American Mel Lawrence (left/photo by Mike Scott), who finished 19th in a time of 20:44, then was followed by Nike Cross Nationals champ Katie Flood four spots back in 20:48 in her first official race as a Husky after running unattached two weeks ago.
Sophomore Lindsay Flanagan was 49th overall in 21:15, freshman Liberty Miller was 82nd in her first run over the national championship course in 21:32, and sophomore Allison Linnell was 179th to cap UW's scoring in 22:23. Linnell was racing for the first time in a month after suffering from bronchitis.
In the White section of the women’s race, Washington State showed that while they appear to have improved over last year, the squad is still a work in progress as they finished 34th .
Freshman Ruby Roberts was the first Cougar woman to finish in the 6000m White Race, placing 135th with a time of 22:09. Roberts was followed by Sarah Bobbe in 147th (22:16), Caroline Austin in 156th (22:21), Allison Clark in 162nd (22.22), and Emily Farrar in 226th (23:06). Finishing out of the scoring Saturday were Ashlee Wall Eskelsen (248th) and Courtney Zalud (271st).
The men's team was somewhat in flux for the second straight race in the men’s Blue section, as they competed again without junior Max O'Donoghue-McDonald, and junior Cameron Quackenbush gave it a go but was unable to finish, similar to the events of the Notre Dame Invitational over the 8000 meter course.
Sophomore Joey Bywater led the way for the second race in a row, finishing 69th in 24:38.
Several Huskies had their strongest outings of the season Saturday, as sophomore James Cameron was UW's No. 2 runner for the first time in his career, placing 103rd overall in a time of 24:56 over the 8,000-meters.
Sophomore Rob Webster made a strong showing in his first outing of the season, placing 155th as UW's third finisher in 25:27, just ahead of senior Jordan Swarthout who was 156th one second back. Redshirt freshman Gareth Gilna capped the scoring in 160th-place. As a team, the Huskies finished 26th out of 35 teams.
In the men’s White section, Washington State’s Jono Lafler was the first Cougar man to cross the finish line, placing 52nd in the White Race, running the 8000m course in a time of 24 minutes, 36 seconds. Justin Englund was the next WSU man to finish, taking 82nd (24:52), followed by David Hickerson 110th (25:09), Matt Cronrath 129th (25:19), and Drew Jordan 181st (25:56). Sophomore Andrew Kimpel stepped in a hole about 600m from the start, was taken off the course by the local medical personnel via cart but is walking on his own for the trip home and will be evaluated upon his return to Pullman.
In the open section, held after the four main races, redshirt freshman Justine Johnson led the way, placing fourth overall in a time of 21:53. That time would have placed her around 120th in UW's Blue Race. Freshman Mackenzie Carter was 14th in the open race and sophomore Breanna Huschka was 26th.
Eastern Washington’s Kyle King finished third in the men’s open race in 24:44, as he was the lone runner from the school to make the trip to Indiana.
Complete results from the 2010 Pre-Nationals meet hosted by Indiana State University are available here.
NOTE: The sports information offices of the University of Washington, Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, and Indiana State University provided content for this report.
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