Washington women win final try at Pac-12 championships...
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| Washington's Sophie O'Sullivan is interviewed while the rest of the team celebrates behind her after winning the Pac-12 title (Paul Merca photo) |
UNIVERSITY PLACE--After the performance by the Washington Husky men's and women's squads two weeks ago, there were some doubters who questioned whether the Dawgs would finish in the top three at what could be the final Pac-12 Cross Country championship meet, hosted by the Huskies at Chambers Creek Regional Park south of Tacoma, on a cold, crisp but sunny morning.
The nineteenth ranked Washington women put away all doubts, squeezing out a 58-60 win over number 5 Stanford to win their first Pac-10/12 team title since 2009, when a Kendra Schaaf led team won its second straight conference crown in Long Beach, California.
Washington State finished ninth in the women's team race with 258 points.
Meanwhile, the unranked Washington men, which did not have its full arsenal in Wisconsin due to illness and injuries, rose up to have its best race of the season, finishing second by nine points, as number 25 Stanford won by a 41-50 count, while Washington State finished sixth with 168 points.
WOMEN'S RECAP
A group of four women, including former Seattle Pacific All-American Kaylee Mitchell of Oregon State, established themselves before the end of the first lap, while Washington's Sophie O'Sullivan was part of a group of six in the peloton behind the lead group.
On the final lap, Stanford freshman Amy Bunnage pulled away from Mitchell's Oregon State teammate Grace Featherstonhaugh to win in 19:10, six seconds ahead of the Beaver All-American.
Mitchell hung on to finish fourth in 19:20, followed by Oregon's Maddy Elmore in 19:24.
After Stanford's Lucy Jenks crossed the line in fifth at 19:30, the Huskies strung together four runners in the top 14, led by O'Sullivan in sixth at 19:34; Chloe Foerster in seventh at 19:35; Julia David-Smith in tenth at 19:37; and Princeton grad transfer India Weir in 14th at 19:50.
Behind Weir, Stanford got their three remaining scorers across the line in 17-18-and 19th place, which meant the Huskies' final scorer couldn't finish worse than 23rd.
Kentucky transfer Tori Herman finished in 21st in 19:58, as the Huskies ran 1-5 split of 24 seconds.
For Washington, the team title came down to the final kilometer, with the Huskies holding a 59-60 advantage over the Cardinal, with every point and place mattering in the team competition.
Winning Washington coach Maurica Powell, who won her third career Pac-12 title and her first at UW after winning twice at Oregon, praised her five scorers.
“Sophie had a really long track season, and took a break and just committed to racing as hard as she could while continuing to train a ton. Chloe Foerster was 44th at this meet last year and today she was seventh. Julia David-Smith had a torn ACL last year from a freak accident, and she was fantastic today. India Weir had probably the best race of her life; we’ve seen it in training but she really had to believe in herself to do it and that was a huge difference-maker for us. And Tori Herman only started running in August, and just fully committed to putting her head down and getting a little better each week."
The Cougars were led by Caroline Jerotich, who finished 33rd in 20:23. She was followed by Alaina Stone Boggs in 51st (20:54), Neema Kimtai in 54th (20:59), Nicole Bissell in 74th (21:34), and Maya Nichols in 86th (22:12).
MEN'S RECAP
The Cardinal hung on to win yet another Pac-12 cross country title, but were challenged by a Washington squad that didn't look good two weeks ago at the Wisconsin Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, despite missing several pieces.
Stanford won the Pac-12 title by a 41-50 count over the Huskies, with Washington State sixth at 168.
Stanford's Ky Robinson, the reigning NCAA champion at both 5000 and 10000, established his dominance over the field early, with only the Huskies' NCAA indoor mile champion, Luke Houser willing to take Robinson head on.
On the final two laps, Washington's NCAA 1500 meter champion from last June, Nathan Green, charged from as far back as 14th place, to finish third in a photo finish with Stanford's Cole Sprout, as both were given the same time of 22:57 (22:56.5), with Green getting the nod after the photo finish review.
This was Green's second ever collegiate cross country race, as he raced one time last year at the Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where he was 131st in 25:05.
Camas native Evan Jenkins snuck inside the top ten, finishing tenth in 23:13. Veteran Leo Daschbach was 16th in 23:21, and freshman Tyrone Gorze was the Huskies' final scorer in 19th at 23:30, giving the team a 1-5 split of 38 seconds.
Joe Waskom, who raced this summer at the World Championships in Budapest in the 1500m, made his season debut at the Pac-12s, finishing 26th in 23:40.
Stanford also got a third scorer inside the top ten, with Robert DiDonato ninth in 23:11, and their final scorers finished 12th and 15th, respectively to deny the Huskies its first Pac-10/12 team title since 1993 and second in program history.
Washington State was led by Brian Barsaiya in 23rd in 23:34. Kelvin Limo was 28th in 23:49. Rounding out the Cougar scorers were Leif Swanson in 33rd (23:58), Kyle Ortega-Gamill in 46th (24:23), and Micah Galeana in 56th (24:50).
Washington and Washington State head to the NCAA West Regionals in two weeks in Sacramento, California.
BIG SKY CHAMPIONSHIPS
In Missoula, Montana, the Eastern Washington men's and women's cross country teams each earned identical fifth place finishes at the Big Sky Conference championships on a snowy University of Montana Golf Course Friday morning.
Noah Hasselblad (left/photo courtesy EWU Athletics) led the Eagle men over the 8K course, finishing a team-best 20th at 24:52. Cam McChesney ran a strong race to cross at 26th (25:12), followed by Evan Peters at 34th (25:24), Austin Steed at 41st (25:41) and freshman Owen Higgins at 43rd (25:43), as they scored 156 points.
In the women's 5k, Kaylin Sheley led the Eags with her 23rd place finish in 18:18, followed by Lilly Fetzer in 24th in the same time. Nattie Ruzauskas was 32nd in 18:34, followed by Jasmin Munition in 37th at 18:46, and Jenni Bissell in 39th at 18:50 to give Eastern a final team score of 145 points.
Northern Arizona again swept the men's and women's team titles, scoring 20 and a perfect 15 points, respectively.
Nico Young of Northern Arizona won the men's title in 22:50, while teammate Elise Stearns took the women's crown in 16:22.
WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
In Abilene, Texas Friday morning at the Western Athletic Conference championship meet, hosted by Abilene Christian University at Zoe Park, it was a rough go for the Seattle University cross country squads, as the Redhawks finished sixth in the women's 6k race with 192 points, and 11th in the men's 8k championship race with 306 points.
Azalea Groleau, the team leader for the Redhawks, led the way in 16th place at 21:17, as All-American Greta Karinauskaite of Cal Baptist took the victory in 19:50.
Emily Harris was 34th in 22:32, followed by Lilianne Hargreaves in 35th at 22:39. Grace Much was 59th in 23:30, and Rowan Cuadrado was 63rd in 23:37 for the shorthanded squad, which only lined up six runners.
Team leader and two-time NCAA Division II cross country qualifier Yonas Sauers had a bad race, finishing 51st in 25:56 for 8k. Khalid Hirsi was 63rd in 26:36, followed by Lance Mason in 68th in 26:53. Gus Harquail was 74th in 27:19, and Parker Wagnild was 78th in 27:42.
Arturs Medveds of Cal Baptist, the nation's number 5 ranked team, won the race in 23:38.
The women's team title went in a slight upset to 27th ranked Utah Valley, who scored 30 points to 12th ranked Cal Baptist's 36 points.
In the men's race, fifth ranked Cal Baptist scored a near perfect 17 points to top unranked Utah Valley, who had 57 points in the 11-team field.
NOTE: The Pac-12, Big Sky, Western Athletic Conference, USTFCCCA, and the sports information offices of Washington, Washington State, Eastern Washington, and SeattleU contributed to this report.
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