Rosina Machu finishes third at Nuttycombe Invitational, while Washington women win team title...
Machu muscled her way to the front almost immediately in the women's 6K championship race, keeping tight with eventual champion Sadie Sigfstead from Villanova (19:56) and runner-up Florence Caron from Penn State (20:04).
"To come out to Nuttycombe and have that belief and confidence, not just in ourselves, but in our team and what we can do as a whole just shows that level of trust that we have from top to bottom," Machu said of the team's eighth-place finish. "I'm just really proud of this team and it's amazing to see these women come together under the same goal and run for each other."
Meanwhile, the expected dual between number 4 Oregon and number 5 Washington did not materialize, as Oregon sat out several individuals, including their top runner, Maddy Elmore.
The Huskies took advantage of the situation and rode it all the way to winning the team title, the third time the Dawgs have won the team title.
Washington scored 110 points to finish ahead of 14th-ranked Utah which was second with 139. No. 15 Georgetown was third at 145, No. 10 Providence finished fourth with 180, and No. 19 Wisconsin was fifth with 182.
Gonzaga was eighth with 260 points.
Maeve Stiles, the transfer from Penn, led the way for the Dawgs with her eighth place finish in 20:17.
Julia David-Smith was the next finisher in 12th in 20:24 then it was another new transfer, Amina Maatoug from Duke, in 27th-place in 20:39. Chloe Foerster was the fourth scorer in 29th-place, and India Weir capped the five scoring finishers in 34th in 20:47, as UW had exactly at 30-second spread among its top-five.
"They were just really tough," said Women's Director Maurica Powell. "We've been training pretty hard all September and not letting our foot off the gas. We're not worrying about outcomes until late in the year, but we just wanted to compete hard while tired, so it was great that they dug it out but especially good considering the load they were carrying. Maeve had a breakthrough race and Julia, Chloe, and India were all better than they were a year ago. Amina had an operation last April and has only been back running for a few months so it was a great debut for her as well."
After Machu, Logan Hoftsee was the next-highest placement for the Bulldogs, earning a 43rd-place finish in 20:55. Jessica Frydenlund and Willow Collins finished back-to-back in 56th and 57th with times of 21:03 and 21:05, while Sadie Tuckwood placed 101st in 21:27 to round out Gonzaga's point scoring.
In the men's 8k race, number 27 Washington took care of 11 ranked teams to take a fifth place finish with 246 points.
BYU took the team title with 44 points, placing four runners in the top nine, as North Carolina's Parker Wolfe won in 23:04.
Behind BYU were Iowa State with 108, followed by Wake Forest at 150, and North Carolina at 196, in front of the Dawgs at 246.
Gonzaga was 17th with 389 points.
Sophomore Tyrone Gorze and senior Leo Daschbach crossed together in 27th-place and 28th-place to lead the men. Nathan Green improved 23 spots over the final 2,000-meters to finish 45th overall, and Evan Jenkins also moved up 10 spots late to finish 67th in 24:25. Rhys Hammond, a transfer from Cornell, was the fifth Husky in 79th-place in 24:30. Ronan McMahon-Staggs also finished in the top-100 in 91st overall.
The Zags were led by Bryce Cerkowniak, who finished 54th in 24:15, leading the Gonzaga point-scorers who each placed in the top 100. Drew Kolodge was next, placing 69th in 24:26 while Wil Smith placed 76th in 24:30. Cooper Laird and Logan Law rounded out Gonzaga's 389 team points with 93rd-place (Laird, 24:38) and 97th-place (Law, 24:39) finishes.
NOTE: The sports information offices of the University of Wisconsin, the University of Washington, and Gonzaga University contributed to this report.
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