UW women surprise with fourth place finish in Virginia; Viking men repeat as team champs...
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia--The 13th ranked University of Washington women's team got a bit of an unexpected surprise, as Sophie O'Sullivan (photo courtesy UW Athletics), who ran at the World Athletics Championships in the 1500 last month, and last raced on the track on September 8th in Trier, Germany, raced in the season opening Virginia Invitational cross country meet at Panorama Farms.
O'Sullivan, who the UW release said in its pre-meet preview was accompanying the team, but not expected to race, led the Huskies with a 15th place finish over the 5k course in a time of 16:40, as Elise Stearns of Northern Arizona won in 16:18.
Behind O'Sullivan in 18th place was Chloe Foerster in 16:44, followed by Julia David-Smith, who missed all of the 2022-23 season after tearing her ACL, as she ran 16:56 for 30th place.
Princeton grad transfer India Weir was 33rd in 16:59, with Ella Borsheim two places back also in 16:59, giving the Huskies an excellent 1-5 split of 19 seconds.
The Dawgs outran eight ranked squads, placing fourth with 131 points. Second-ranked Northern Arizona won with 48, and No. 9 Stanford and No. 11 Virginia were second and third with 104 and 123 points, respectively. Behind the Huskies were No. 12 Georgetown, No. 26 Iowa State, No. 15 Michigan State, No. 14 Providence, No. 9 Colorado, Syracuse and No. 10 North Carolina.
Washington's performance should vault the team several spots in the USTFCCA national rankings when they release on Tuesday the 26th.
The Husky men had to make do without world championships competitor Joe Waskom, along with NCAA 1500 meter champion Nathan Green, and UCLA transfer Ronan McMahon-Staggs, who were all held out of the meet.
Washington, which went into the weekend ranked number 18 in the USTFCCCA national poll, finished 17th with 378 points.
The Huskies were led by NCAA indoor mile champion Luke Houser, who finished 10th in the 8k race in 23:36, as Drew Bosley of defending national champion Northern Arizona won in 23:20.
True freshman Tyrone Gorze finished 34th in 23:50.
Junior Leo Daschbach was 68th overall in a time of 24:10. Redshirt freshman James Crabtree donned the UW singlet for the first time and he was the fourth scorer in 136th-place in 24:43. Sophomore Evan Jenkins was 149th in 24:49 to cap the scoring.
Number 1 Northern Arizona won the men's team title with 71, followed by number 3 BYU with 101, then number 6 North Carolina with 157, and number 11 Syracuse with 167.
The Huskies next race in three weeks at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin on October 13th.
WESTERN WASHINGTON REPEATS AS MEN'S CHAMPIONS AT BILL ROE CLASSIC...
The Vikings scored a low of 47 points in what may be a preview to next month's GNAC cross country championships in Anchorage, to defeat Alaska Anchorage, who scored 62 points, and Simon Fraser with 85 points.
Saint Martin's was eighth with 206, followed by Seattle Pacific's 244, and Central Washington's 254 in tenth.
Defending GNAC champ and NCAA D2 All-American Cole Nash of Alaska Anchorage took the win in 24:42 over the 8k course.
The Vikings were led by Kevin McDermott (photo courtesy WWU Athletics), who was fourth in 24:59, followed by Andrew Oslin in seventh in 25:04.
Sam Lingwall in 12th and Jalen Javurek in 13th were two seconds apart in 25:30 and 25:32, while Jeret Gillingham rounded out the WWU scorers in 16th in 25:38, giving the Vikings a 1-5 split of 39 seconds.
Kainalu Pagente was Saint Martin's top runner in 23rd in 25:43. Brennan LeBlanc led the way for Seattle Pacific for the third meet in a row, finishing 38th in 26:10.
Central Washington, which ran without Johan Correa, who won both the UPS and PLU Invitationals earlier this month, was led by Steiner Christensen, who finished was 14th in 25:35.
In the opening women's 6k, Constance Nankivel of Canada's Trinity Western took the win in 21:17, while the University of Victoria placed three runners in the top ten to take the team title by a 54-72 count over Western Washington, which came into the meet at number 27 in the national USTFCCCA D2 rankings.
Saint Martin's was third with 94, followed by Simon Fraser in fourth with 112.
Seattle Pacific was eighth with 188, while Central Washington was tenth at 275.
Sophomore Ashley Reeck paced the Vikings completing the 6K course in 22:03, backing up her winning performance at the UPS Invitational in the season opener.
Junior Mia Crocker (22:25) and sophomore Ila Davis (22:28) crossed the finish line 14th and 15th to help lift the Vikings to the second-place finish.
Senior Marian Ledesma was 19th (22:41), and freshman Ella Edens 22nd (22:47) to round out the Viking scorers, who had a 44-second 1-5 split.
Saint Martin's was led by Cassidy Walchak-Sloan in seventh in 21:54. She was followed by Alisha Saucedo in 11th in 22:11, then Elke Wijkmans in 16th at 22:28.
One place behind in 17th was Sara Sabra in 22:32, then Kya Ramirez closed out the Saints scorers in 60th in 24:28.
For the second straight meet, Annika Esvelt led the way for Seattle Pacific in ninth in 22:05, while Central Washington's top runner was Lauren Thompson in 69th in 25:07.
NOTE: The sports information offices of the University of Washington, University of Virginia and Western Washington University contributed to this report.
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