Cougs and Dawgs maintain their national rankings in latest USTFCCCA coaches' poll...

Washington's Amy-Eloise Neale, Izzi Batt-Doyle & Emily
Hamlin lead at the UW/SeattleU Open (Paul Merca photo)

NEW ORLEANS—The cancellation of last week’s Oregon XC Preview in Springfield due to the poor air quality around the Pacific Northwest caused by the number of wildfires did not hurt the Washington  State Cougars in the first official USTFCCCA coaches poll released Tuesday.

Washington State remains ranked at number 11, holding steady from the same ranking the Cougars got in the coaches’ pre-season poll two weeks ago.

The nation’s top five men’s teams are defending national champion Northern Arizona, Stanford, Syracuse, Pac-12 champ Colorado, and Arkansas.

Other Pac-12 schools ranked in the national top 30 include #8 Oregon and #22 UCLA.

The University of Washington remains ranked number 13 in the latest national women’s poll, after competing against Seattle University on September 1st in a non-scoring meet.

Three Pac-12 teams are among the nation’s top five squads in the latest poll, led by Pac-12 champs Colorado, defending national champions Oregon, New Mexico, Michigan, and Stanford.

Utah is the only other Pac-12 team ranked in the women’s top 30 at number 22.

The men’s national poll is available here, while the women’s national poll is available here.

WEEKEND RECAP

Here’s a couple of items we missed over the weekend:

On Sunday at the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile on the streets of New York, Hannah Fields of the Brooks Beasts finished 19th in 4:31, as former world champion Jenny Simpson won her sixth title (and fifth straight) in a time of 4:17 (4:16.6).

In the men’s pro race, Drew Windle of the Brooks Beasts finished 22nd in 4:18 (4:17.3), as two-time Olympic 1500 meter medalist Nick Willis of New Zealand won his fourth title in 3:52 (3:51.3).

The results of the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile are available here.

Also on Sunday, Washington State University hall of famer Bernard Lagat finished eighth at the Simplyhealth Great North Run half-marathon in Newcastle, UK, running 63:02, as Great Britain’s Mo Farah of the Beaverton-based Nike Oregon Project and the reigning world champion at 10000 meters, won in 60:06, collecting his fourth victory at this event.

The race recap is available here.

The day before, Washington alum Katie Mackey of the Brooks Beasts, who missed the USATF outdoor championships in June due to an injury, finished fourth in the women’s road mile at the Great North CityGames street meet in Newcastle/Gateshead, running 4:36 (4:35.63), as Great Britain’s Melissa Courtney won in 4:34 (4:33.83).

Results of the Great North CityGames street meet are available here.

Finally, here’s a report from Ken Goe of the Oregonian stating that the planned renovation to Historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon is now expected to begin next summer, which puts the 2019 Nike Prefontaine Classic and the NCAA track & field championships in danger, as well as the 2019 Oregon state high school championships.

Additionally, the Oregon track team could be forced to look elsewhere outside their campus to train, most likely at nearby high schools (South Eugene HS is the closest facility to the Oregon campus with a track).

According to Goe, the 2019 Nike Prefontaine Classic is expected to move from late May to either late July or early August because of changes in the international schedule due to the world championships in Doha, Qatar from September 28 to October 6th.

You can read his article here.

NOTE: The USTFCCCA, New York Road Runners, Great North Run, and Oregonlive.com contributed to this report.