D1 Conference Championship weekend: Can UW women win the Big Ten? Can Zags take WCC?
After the four Division II schools completed their conference championship last Saturday, it's the five Division I schools who step up to the line this Friday and Saturday.
With the demise of the Pac-12 Conference, both Washington and Washington State are competing for conference crowns in different places, with the Huskies heading east to Savoy, Illinois for the Big Ten Championships, hosted by the University of Illinois, and Washington State heading south to Lodi, California for the West Coast Conference championship meet, hosted by Pacific University.
BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS...
The number 2 ranked Washington women and the number 18 ranked Husky men's squad has the longest distance to travel for the Big Ten Conference Championships at the Orange and Blue Golf Course in Savoy, Illinois, just outside Champaign.
The Huskies are flying into Indianapolis, and bussing the rest of the way to the Champaign-Urbana area where the University of Illinois is located.
The Husky women, who won the final Pac-12 cross country championships last year at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place, are solid favorites to win the first Big Ten title in any sport in school history. They'll be led by senior Sophie O'Sullivan (Paul Merca photo), who was sixth at last year's Pac-12 championships.
The Paris Olympian at 1500m for Ireland has only run one cross country race so far this season.
That said, number 17 Oregon may be the biggest threat to the Huskies. While the Ducks ran their lead runner, Maddy Elmore at the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Springfield, Oregon on October 11th, they have yet to run Polish Olympian Klaudia Kazimierska and Silan Ayyildiz this season.
Both are expected to make their season debut at the Big Ten.
Other nationally ranked teams in the field include number 11 Wisconsin, number 22 Minnesota, number 24 Penn State, and number 26 Michigan State, the defending champions.
The Washington women are coming off two impressive showings in Verona, Wisconsin, where they won the Nuttycombe Invitational on September 27th, and finished second behind number one ranked BYU at the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals.
Washington has seen all of the major contenders for the Big Ten title so far this season.
On the men's side, the Huskies are going up against defending Big Ten champs and number 9 Wisconsin, and number 25 Oregon. Michigan and Michigan State are also expected to be in the mix.
The Huskies, who were fifth at the Nuttycombe Invitational, sat out five runners at the Pre-Nationals, including Tyrone Gorze, Leo Daschbach, Nathan Green, Evan Jenkins, and Jamar Distel, as they ran to a 24th place finish at that meet.
Washington is expected to be at full strength for the Big Ten Championships.
Action gets underway Friday at 10:35 am local time (8:35 am Pacific) with the women's 6k, while the men's 8k begins an hour later.
BIG SKY CHAMPIONSHIPS...
Eastern Washington heads to Pocatello, Idaho for the Big Sky Conference Championship Friday at the Riverside Golf Course, hosted by Idaho State University. The men's race kicks off at 10 a.m., followed by the women's race at 11 a.m.
The men are coming off a strong performance, having clinched first place at the LC State Invite two weekends ago. Evan Peters led the way, finishing fourth with a time of 24:18 for 8k, while Marcus Lemon and Noah Hasselblad secured sixth and seventh places, respectively.
The women also had a solid showing, finishing third overall. Division II All-American Cassidy Walchak-Sloan was the standout performer, taking seventh with a time of 17:21 for 5k, closely followed by Jasmin Muneton in 12th at 17:33.
Nationally ranked Northern Arizona is the prohibitive favorite to win both the men's and women's team titles.
WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS...
Seattle University heads to Orem, Utah for the Western Athletic Conference championships hosted by Utah Valley University at Lakeside Park.
The women's 6k race opens the day of racing at 9 am Pacific, followed 45 minutes later by the men's 8k.
Azalea Groleau is perhaps Seattle University's best shot for a top ten individual finish, after finishing seventh at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational two weeks ago. Groleau was 16th in this meet last year, as she led the Redhawks to a sixth place team finish.
It realistically will be tough sledding for the men's squad to get out of the basement after their 14th place team finish two weeks ago at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational.
Their lead runner at Santa Clara was senior Lance Mason, who was 50th in 25:27 for 8k.
WEST COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS...
The only conference championship meet involving the five Washington D1 schools not contested on Friday is the West Coast Conference championships on Saturday in Lodi, California, hosted by Pacific University.
The women's 6k gets underway at 10 am on Saturday, followed by the men's 8k an hour later.
The meet will be live streamed on ESPN Plus.
In the women's 6k, the big story is whether or not number 16 Gonzaga can slam the door on the field and win its first WCC team title since the magical 2015 season that saw the Zags qualify for the NCAA championship meet for the first time in school history.
From an individual standpoint, the question is whether or not Rosina Machu of the Zags can repeat as WCC champion, with freshman Zenah Cheptoo of Washington State the most likely threat to Machu repeating.
Both the Zags and the Cougars are on a bit of a roll, after Gonzaga won the Arturo Barrios Invitational in College Station, Texas two weeks ago, while Washington State won the unseeded section of the Nuttycombe Invitational in Wisconsin.
At Arturo Barrios, Machu finished fourth over the 6k course in 19:10. At Nuttycombe, Cheptoo was second in 20:12, while Alaina Stone Boggs had a breakthrough performance in seventh at 20:39.
Portland may have a say on how things shake out in the women's team race, but on paper, it's Gonzaga and Washington State who are the class of the field.
The men's team race is a little harder to call as it's a three team race between Portland, defending champion Gonzaga, and Washington State.
While WSU's Evans Kurui is the favorite for the individual title, the Cougars could possibly contend for the team title, except for a glaring weakness with their fifth runner.
At the Nuttycombe Invitational, where the Cougs finished fifth in the unseeded section, the team was hurt by a 61 second gap between number 4 runner Kelvin Limo (24:34 for 8k) and number 5 Leo Cook (25:35).
At the Bill Dellinger meet, Gonzaga finished third behind number 2 BYU and number 25 Oregon, as number 28 Portland sat out several athletes.
In the only true meeting between Gonzaga and Portland, the Pilots finished 14th at Nuttycombe, while Gonzaga was 17th.
US Olympic Trials 10000m qualifier Wil Smith (Paul Merca photo) did not have a good outing at Nuttycombe, as he finished 76th after placing ninth in the same meet last year.
Smith's ability to run up front with Kurui and Portland's Matt Strangio, plus whether or not the Zags' 2 through 6 runners can neutralize Portland's pack will determine whether or not Gonzaga defends its conference championship.
NOTE: The Big Ten Conference, Big Sky Conference, Western Athletic Conference, West Coast Conferencem and the sports information office of Washington, Eastern Washington, Seattle University, Gonzaga, and Washington State contributed to this report.
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