Husky men's team takes strong second in White section of Wisconsin Pre-Nationals...
Tibebu Proctor (left/photo by Paul Merca) led the way for the #12 ranked Huskies, as the sophomore finished sixth in 23:57 over the 8k distance, after making a late charge and actually took the lead with less than 400 meters to go, but could not hold off the late rush of BYU’s Rory Linkletter, who won in 23:55, followed by Syracuse’s Aidan Tooker and San Francisco’s Chris Olley in the same time.
Following Proctor for the Huskies was Spokane native Tanner Anderson in 11th in 24:02, then Talon Hull in 14th in 24:06.
Fred Huxham was 34th in 24:22, and Mahmoud Moussa rounded out Washington’s scorers in 24:31.
Before the race, Washington head coach Andy Powell put the onus on his squad to move over the last two miles or so of the race.
The way the Dawgs moved over the last part of the race was impressive, as at the 2k mark, Washington was in 14th place, then took over second behind eventual winner BYU at the 5.8k mark.
BYU, ranked number two in the country, won with 62 points, followed by Washington at 120, and Syracuse at 201.
In the same section, the #17 ranked Washington State Cougars finished tenth with a final team score of 326, which will make things interesting when the national rankings come out on Tuesday.
Washington State was led by Chandler Teigen in 26th at 24:16.
He was followed by Amir Ado in 46th in 24:36. then Paul Ryan in 73rd (24:53), Nathan Wadhwani in 83rd (24:59), and Kyler Little in 98th (25:05).
In the men’s Cardinal section, the Gonzaga Bulldogs may have put themselves on the verge of a national top-25 ranking with their ninth place finish, scoring 307 points.
In his first race against meaningful competition, freshman James Mwaura led the way for the Bulldogs in 40th place in 24:35, after mixing it up with the frontrunners early.
Behind Mwaura were Kyle Thompson in 49th (24:38), Peter Hogan in 64th (24:45), Bennett Gagnon in 77th (24:51), and Yacine Guermali in 82nd (24:54).
Number one ranked Northern Arizona won the section with 41 points, followed by Stanford at 84, and Colorado at 110. Stanford’s Grant Fisher took the victory in 23:49.
In the women’s White section, the Washington Huskies finished fifth with 199 points, while Washington State was 26th at 659.
Katie Rainsberger was tenth to lead the Huskies in 20:21 over the 6k distance. She was followed by Emily Hamlin (20:51) in 22nd, then Kaitlyn Neal (20:57) in 31st.
Allie Schadler (21:14) in 51st, and Olivia O’Keeffe (21:40) in 85th closed out the scoring for Washington.
Washington State was led by Emma Jenkins in 74th (21:34), followed by Kaili Keefe in 126th (22:05), then All-American Vallery Korir in 144th (22:14).
Zorana Grujic in 152nd (22:20), and Melissa Hruska (22:26) in 163rd rounded out WSU’s five scorers.
Weini Kelati of New Mexico finished first in 19:34, followed by teammate Ednah Kurgat in 19:46.
New Mexico won the section with 80, followed by Stanford at 124, and Michigan with 170.
The women’s Cardinal section was won by Arkansas with 51 points over Oregon’s 71 and Indiana’s 166. Oregon’s Jessica Hull won the race in a time of 20:04.
Complete results of the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals are available here.
NOTE: The University of Wisconsin contributed to this report.
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