Washington women second, and Husky men fifth at Pac-12s...
The women's squad put seven runners in the top-25 and scored just 55 points for its best team point total since last winning the Pac-12 meet in 2009. But second-ranked Stanford posted the best team score since the Huskies' perfect score in 2008, scoring just 27 points to win. The last time the Huskies had seven in the top-25 was also in 2009, when the conference had just ten teams.
Behind the Cardinal and Huskies, 16th-ranked Utah was third with 86 points, fifth-ranked Colorado was fourth with 89 points, and 20th-ranked Oregon was fifth with 115 points.
"The women were great today," said Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Maurica Powell. "In terms of outcome, we were looking to be top-two as a team, and to do it we needed to put two in the top-10 and all five scorers in the top-20 and we did that. We wanted a 30 second spread one-to-five and we were better than that. I was also pleased that we only had 46 seconds through seven scorers, and had all seven in the top-25, which is good depth. Overall, really pleased with their toughness and grit in the sixth week of their hard six week training block. I think they can even be better over the next three weeks as we lighten up and focus on the NCAA meet.
Stanford senior Fiona O'Keeffe got the win in 19-minutes, 32-seconds, with Rainsberger taking fourth in 19:41 and Smart fifth in 19:44.
Shona McCulloch was 12th in an even 20-minutes, a huge improvement from a year ago when she was 40th. Allie Schadler was a career-best 15th in 20:06, up from 23rd last year, and Camila David-Smith capped the scoring in 19th-place in 20:11. Her last Pac-12 race was 2017 when she was 65th.
Meanwhile, Washington State finished tenth with 250 points, led by Zorana Grujic, who was 35th in 20:45.
Crossing the finish line shortly after was Erin Mullins at 20:57, and then Josie Brown in 52nd overall with a time of 21:03. Kaili Keefe (21:18) and Natalie Ackerley (21:19) placed 67th and 68th respectively.
In the opening men’s 8k race, Washington took it out hard as most of their runners were in the front for the first 3k, despite the windy conditions.
Jordan, the All-American transfer from Iowa State was never out of the top-10 and would be one of three runners truly in contention over the final hundred meters. Ultimately Colorado's Joe Klecker hung on after taking the lead at the halfway point, crossing in 23:02 for the 8,000-meters.
Oregon's Cooper Teare was second in 23:05 and Jordan was a half-second behind in 23:06 for third. Jordan became the third Husky man to go top-three at the Pac-12 Championships, and the second in as many years, as Talon Hull was second-place last season.
Mt. Spokane HS grad John Dressel finished eighth in 23:20 to give him his fourth career top-10 conference championship finish.
A big group of Huskies crossed the line within 13 seconds of each other starting with junior Tibebu Proctor in 18th-place in 23:33. Jack Rowe was right next to Proctor in 19th. Sophomore Isaac Green turned in the best race of his career, scoring for UW for the first time ever in 23rd-place in 23:40. Freshman Sam Tanner then capped the scoring in 24th-place in his first conference championship with a time of 23:45.
Third-ranked Colorado got the win today with 41 points while 16th-ranked Oregon jumped up to take second with 57 points. Stanford, also ranked third nationally along with Colorado, was third with 69 points. 10th-ranked UCLA just edged the Huskies with 84 points as UW scored 87.
Washington State was sixth with 204, led by Reid Muller, who was 39th in 24:07.
The other Cougar scorers were Matthew Watkins who placed 40th overall with a time of 24:07. Justin Janke and Zach Stallings were not too far behind Watkins as Janke finished 43rd with a time of 24:10, and Stallings placed 48th overall at 24:26. Cameron Dean in 52nd at 24:39 closed out the scoring, as Amir Ado dropped out shortly after the halfway mark with cramps.
"The team is better than what they ran today so we are not happy with the performance, although we did some good things," said Husky head coach Andy Powell. "We closed the gap between one and five so that's getting better. The top five teams in the conference are all really good, we just unfortunately were on the back side of it today. We could have been a few places higher, but we have to improve at Regionals."
Complete results of the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships are available here.
MWAURA AND MANLEY EARN TOP 10 FINISHES AT WCC CHAMPS...
Gonzaga’s James Mwaura and Claire Manley led the Bulldogs across the line in Friday’s West Coast Conference championships at the Woodley Lakes Golf Course in Van Nuys, California Friday.
Mwaura, the sophomore from Tacoma’s Lincoln HS, finished fourth over the 8k distance in 23:41.
Behind Mwaura for the 29th-ranked Bulldogs were Peter Hogan in 11th (24:08), Cullen McEachern in 15th (24:21), Jake Perrin in 18th (24:36), and Phillip Fishburn rounded out the scoring in 19th (24:36).
Conner Mantz of BYU was the individual winner in 23:34, leading the Cougars to yet another WCC title, scoring 18 points, with Portland second at 51, and the Zags third at 63 points.
In the women’s 6k race, Manley led the way for Gonzaga with her sixth place finish in 20:34.
Alicia Anderson (21:46), and Ally Legard (21:47) were 27th and 28th. Brittney Hansen finished with a time of 22:00 in 35th place, while Makenna Edwards rounded out the team scoring in 39th at 22:06.
The BYU women had a near perfect finish and defended their title. The Cougars' 18 points were the lowest championship score as a WCC member. All seven of BYU's runners placed in the Top-10, including a top-three sweep led by Whittni Orton's 19:50 finish. She beat out teammate, and defending individual champion, Erica Birk-Jarvis (19:50) at the line. Portland placed second as a team with 84 points and San Francisco was third with 90 points, while Gonzaga had their best team finish in three years, placing fourth at 123 points.
The results of the West Coast Conference championships are available here.
Washington State hosts the NCAA West Regionals in two weeks at the Colfax Golf Club, where berths to the NCAA championships in Terre Haute, Indiana are on the line.
NOTE: The Pac-12 Conference, the West Coast Conference and the sports information offices of Gonzaga University, the University of Colorado, University of Washington, Washington State University, and Oregon State University contributed to this report.
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