Both Husky squads finish fourth at Pac-12s...
OAKLAND, California--Under rainy skies at the Metropolitan Golf Course adjacent to the Oakland airport, the #12 ranked University of Washington Huskies finished fourth in the uber-competitive Pac-12 cross country championships Friday morning.
Washington survived an 11th place finish by lead runner Aaron Nelson (left/photo by Mike Scott), as they packed four other runners within a 20-second span to capture their highest team placing since 2009, when they finished fourth, with a score of 87 points.
Defending Pac-12 and national champion Colorado took the team crown with 30 points, comfortably ahead of second place Oregon's 57 points, with Stanford third with 60 points.
Defending champ Edward Cheserek of Oregon won his second conference crown, running 23:23 to finish 11 seconds ahead of teammate Eric Jenkins.
Behind Nelson, who finished the 8-kilometer course in 23:59 came a breakthrough performance by Tyler King in 12th, one second back.
Redshirt freshman Colby Gilbert, the USA junior 5000m champ, finished 17th in 24:11, followed by Meron Simon in 22nd in 24:16, and Izaic Yorks rounding out the Husky scorers in 25th place in 24:19.
Washington State finished a disappointing ninth with a score of 224, led by Drew Jordan's 35th place finish in 24:36.
Sam Levora was 45th n 24:50, followed by John Whelan in 48th in 24:53. Lee George was 54th in 25:04, and Forrest Shaffer rounded out the WSU scorers in 55th at 25:05.
In the women's 6k race, the #17 ranked Huskies, running without both Katie Knight and Amy-Eloise Neale, finished fourth with a team score of 93 points, as Oregon nosed out Stanford by a comfortable 54-74 count.
Washington's lead runner, Maddie Meyers (left/photo by Paul Merca), was in the mix for most of the race, before finishing fourth in 20:21, as reigning NCAA 1500 meter champ Shelby Houlihan of Arizona State took the individual title in 19:59.
Behind Meyers for the Huskies were freshman Anna Maxwell in 17th in a time of 20:40, with Kaylee Flanagan finishing 18th in the same time.
Eleanor Fulton was four places back in 22nd in a time of 20:50, while freshman Anastasia Kosykh was 33rd in 21:07.
Washington State finished tenth with a final team score of 246 points, led by Abby Regan's ninth place finish, in a time of 20:30.
CharLee Linton was 58th in 21:32, followed by Ashlie Standow in 62nd at 21:37. Devon Bortfeld was 67th in 21:41, and Morgan Willson was 68th in 21:43.
The focus turns to the NCAA regional championships two weeks from today at the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto.
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