Huskies and Redhawks take relaxed approach to Sundodger Invitational...
Before the meet, program director Maurica Powell stressed that the Huskies, who had only assembled as a team on Tuesday, would run a few athletes to satisfy the NCAA requirements of competing in a meet in order to hold a pre-season training camp, given that Washington starts school at the end of the month.
With that in mind, the majority of the team sat out the Sundodger race, with only a skeleton crew donning purple and gold uniforms Saturday.
In the opening women’s 6k race, two time defending NCAA steeplechase champion Allie Ostrander of Boise State easily won the race, cruising to victory in 20:22, five seconds ahead of teammate Clare O’Brien, as the Broncos took the first four spots in the race.
Oregon State’s Haley Wolf was fifth in 20:56, with NCAA cross country All-American Katie Rainsberger (left/photo by Paul Merca) the first Husky finisher in tenth at 21:18.
Scoring for the Huskies behind Rainsberger were NCAA steeple qualifier Emily Hamlin in 12th (21:26), Olivia O’Keeffe in 21st (21:52), Allie Schadler in 22nd (21:53), and Sarah Carter in 23rd (22:02).
Seattle University, who, like Washington, ran a skeleton team, were led by Rachel Kastama (40th, 23:47), Marie-Therese Charouri (41st, 23:48), Ellie Postma (43rd, 23:53), Shannan Higgins (45th, 24:05), and Abby Smith (48th, 24:30), as Redhawk coach Kelly Sullivan elected to sit out most of his upperclassmen.
As expected, the Broncos, who finished sixth at last year’s NCAA championships won the meet with 17 points, with Oregon State second at 49 points. The host Huskies were third with 73 points, while Trinity Western was fourth with 111 points, and Seattle University was fifth with 148 points.
It was more of the same in the men’s 8k, as Boise State All-American Yusuke Uchikoshi led seven straight Broncos across the line, winning in 24:18.
Washington was led by NCAA cross country qualifier Tibu Proctor in eighth (24:30), followed by Julius Diehr (24:44) in ninth.
Also scoring for the Dawgs were Nick Laccinole in 13th (24:52), Chase Equall in 15th (25:00), and Nate Beamer in 18th (25:23).
The Redhawks were led by Eastlake HS product and Colorado transfer Nathan Pixler, who was 22nd in 25:43.
He was followed by Cal Davidson-Turner in 24th (26:07), Alex Franklin in 27th (26:28), Javon Arnone in 28th (26:45), and Ansel Pendley-Griffin in 30th (26:53).
Boise State won the men’s competition with a perfect 15, followed by the Huskies at 55. Trinity Western was third with 78, with Seattle University fourth at 99 points.
Unlike previous seasons, the Huskies will conduct their training camp on campus before returning to racing action in two weeks, as its men’s team heads to Boston for the Battle in Beantown on September 21st.
Meanwhile, Seattle University returns to action on the 21st in Springfield at the Bill Dellinger Invitational hosted by the University of Oregon.
Complete results of the Sundodger Invitational, along with Washington's release, are available here.
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