It's conference championship weekend for all five Washington Division I schools...
With the Division II schools getting their conference championship meet out of the way in Anchorage last Saturday, it's time for the big schools to race for their conference crowns.
PAC 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Huskies and the Cougars don't have very far to go, as Washington hosts on Friday what could be the last Pac-12 cross country championships at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place, south of Tacoma.
The 2023 Pac-12 Cross Country Championships mark the seventh time the event has been held in the state of Washington and first time since the 2020 meet, (contested in March 2021), where Chambers Creek Regional Park was also utilized as the host venue.
After the 2023-24 school year is completed, Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA will join the Big Ten, while Cal and Stanford head to the Atlantic Coast Conference. The four corner schools--Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are all headed to the Big 12 Conference, leaving Washington State and Oregon State as the last two conference holdovers, pending the outcome of potential legal action.
The Washington women's squad is one of six nationally ranked teams in the Pac-12 field, entering the meet at number 19 after a 13th place finish at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin.
Washington was led at Nuttycombe by Chloe Foerster (#1467/Paul Merca photo), who finished 40th over the 6k course in 20:39. Team leader Sophie O'Sullivan ran with the front pack early on a wet day and finished 65th in 20:52.
Washington State is coming off a ninth place finish at the Virginia Pre-Nationals two weeks ago, led by Neema Kimtai's 25th place finish in 20:35, followed by Cristina Molteni's 44th place finish in 20:55, and Caroline Jerotich's 48th place finish in 21:00 over 6k.
Both teams look to improve upon their fifth and seventh place finishes at last year's championships, in what perhaps is the toughest conference nationally.
Number 5 Stanford, number 9 Oregon State, and number 14 Oregon are the top three ranked teams in the women's national poll heading into the Pac-12s.
In the men's race, the Huskies, who are currently out of the national top 30 after being ranked earlier in the season, are expected to have in its reinforcements the last two NCAA 1500 meter champions in Joe Waskom and Nathan Green.
The Huskies finished 27th at the Nuttycombe Invitational two weeks ago.
Waskom, who ran at the world championships in Budapest this summer, was 24th at last year's Pac-12 cross country championships, while Green will make his UW cross country debut. Luke Houser has been the team leader for the Huskies so far this season, finishing tenth at the Virginia Invitational and 16th at Nuttycombe.
Brian Barsaiya and Kelvin Limo have been the 1-2 punch for the Cougars this season.
Barsaiya was 17th at the Virginia Pre-Nationals, running 23:37 for 8k, while Limo was 19th at the Joe Piane Invitational at Notre Dame, running 23:56, and 49th at Virginia in 24:08 for 8k.
The Huskies were third at last year's Pac-12s in Riverside, California, while the Cougars were sixth in the men's team race.
Number 9 Colorado, and defending champion Stanford at number 25 are the only two ranked men's squads going into the conference championship meet, with Oregon and Washington looking on the outside of the top 30.
The Pac-12 Cross Country Championships will broadcast live across Pac-12 Networks, featuring commentators Jim Watson and Tom Feuer. Coverage of the men’s 8k championship race will kick off at 10 am, and the women’s 6k broadcast follows at 11 am.
For those wishing to attend the meet, admission is free at Chambers Creek Regional Park.
BIG SKY CHAMPIONSHIPS
One year removed from hosting the Big Sky championships in Cheney, Eastern Washington heads to Missoula, Montana for their championship meet, hosted by the University of Montana at the UM Golf Course.
The Big Sky marks the second meet this season that the Eagles will travel to Missoula. Competing on the same course, Eastern finished second in the men's team race, and fourth in the women's team race at the University of Montana Open back on September 15th.
Noah Hasselblad (photo courtesy EWU Athletics) led the team in Montana with his seventh place finish. In fact, the junior has been first across the line for the Eagles in all four meets this season. He looks to improve upon his 21st place finish at last year's championships.
On the women's side, sophomore Nattie Ruzauskas and senior Kaylin Sheley have each had a turn as the team's top runner this season, with Sheley coming in seventh at the season opening Clash of the Inland Northwest, while Ruzauskas was the top runner at the Montana Invitational, where she was tenth, the Live in Lou meet in Louisville, where she was 78th, and the Lewis-Clark State Invitational, where she finished tenth.
The Eagles had identical sixth place finishes at the Big Sky championship meet last year.
No team from the Big Sky is expected to challenge Northern Arizona, which is ranked number one in the country on both the men's and women's side.
The meet will be streamed live on ESPN+, with the women's 5K at 10 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. MT and the men's 8K at 11 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. MT.
The link to the Big Sky championships home page, which includes links to the live results and live stream is available here.
WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Seattle University travels to Abilene, Texas for the Western Athletic Conference championship meet, hosted by Abilene Christian University at Zoe Park.
Action gets underway at 6 am Pacific/8 am local time with the men's 8k, and the women's 6k at 6:45 am Pacific/8:45 am local time.
SeattleU will be led by Yonas Sauers (photo courtesy SeattleU Athletics), a transfer from Division II Wingate, where he was a two time NCAA cross country championships qualifier who finished 94th at last year's meet at Chambers Creek Regional Park.
Sauers finished second at the Charles Bowles Invitational over 8k, running 23:53 on September 30th, and won the Linfield George Oja meet on October 14th, running 24:04.
Azalea Groleau has led the Redhawks in all three meets this season, finishing eighth at the Linfield Harrier Classic, fifth at the Charles Bowles Invite, and second at the Linfield George Oja meet, where she ran 20:57 over 6k.
SeattleU's men's squad looks to improve upon their 12th place finish in last year's meet, while the women look to improve from their eighth place finish. The Redhawk women have finished no worse than third in their three regular season meets, including taking the team title two weeks ago at the Oja Linfield Invitational.
At the WAC, it's a case of everybody against nationally ranked Cal Baptist, the number 5 team in the USTFCCCA men's coaches poll, and 12th in the women's poll.
WEST COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
The only conference championship meet not contested on Friday is the West Coast Conference championship races in Malibu, California at Alumni Park, hosted by Pepperdine University on Saturday.
The women's 6K race begins at 10 a.m. PT, while the men's 8K race starts at 11 a.m. PT. ESPN+ will stream the meet to its subscribers.
After Brigham Young University left the WCC to join the Big 12 Conference, Gonzaga is in the unusual position as the favorite to win both the men's and women's team titles.
Heading into the conference championship, the Gonzaga women are ranked number 28 in the USTFCCCA coaches' poll, while the men are just outside the national top 30 after finishing 26th at Nuttycombe. The Bulldog men's squad had been in the top 30 for most of the season, until the Nuttycombe meet, where they were missing Evan Bates and Kyle Radosevich.
Wil Smith (Paul Merca photo) and Rosina Machu head into the conference meet as among the favorites for the individual title.
In the two big invitationals this season, Smith finished second at the Roy Griak meet in Minnesota, running 24:01 for 8k, and was ninth at the Nuttycombe Invitational on a wet and sloppy day, running 23:33.
Smith is expected to get a challenge from Nicholas Russell of Santa Clara, who was eighth at the WCC meet in Portland last year. Russell was 11th at the Roy Griak meet in Minnesota, and ninth at the Virginia Pre-Nationals two weeks ago.
Machu was second at the Waves Invitational on the WCC championship course, running 13:56 for 4k on September 9th, and has won the last two meets, taking the Loyola Lakefront Invitational in Chicago in 19:21 for 6k on September 29th, and the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational in Sunnyvale, California, running 19:17 for 6k.
Machu's key competitor for the individual title is Laura Pellicoro of Portland, who was second last year in Portland, while Machu placed seventh.
Gonzaga and Portland are the two leading contenders for the conference title. Gonzaga has never won the WCC men's title, while the women's team last won the WCC in 2015 when they hosted the meet at Plantes Ferry Park in Spokane Valley.
WESTERN WASHINGTON SQUADS STAY IN THE DIVISION II NATIONAL RANKINGS...
Western Washington, which swept the men's and women's team titles last Saturday at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship meet in Anchorage, Alaska, maintained their positions inside the top 30 in the latest USTFCCCA Division II coaches' poll released Wednesday.
The men's squad dropped one spot from the last poll from number 12 to 13, while the women jumped three positions from number 15 to number 12.
The national women's top five are in order: Grand Valley State, Adams State, Colorado School of Mines, Western Colorado, and West Texas A&M.
The national men's top five are in order: Colorado School of Mines, Wingate, Grand Valley State, Adams State, and East Central (Oklahoma).
The only other GNAC squad ranked in the national top 30 is the Alaska Anchorage men, which is ranked number 21 in the coaches' poll.
NOTE: The Pac-12, Big Sky, Western Athletic Conference, West Coast Conference, USTFCCCA, and the sports information offices of Washington, Washington State, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga and SeattleU contributed to this report.
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