Both Washington squads finish second in Big Ten championship debut...
EDITOR'S NOTE: Apologies for the delay in posting, as we left Savoy immediately after the awards ceremony to drive back to Chicago for the flight home to Seattle.
The Big Sky and WCC championship recaps will be posted later.
SAVOY, Illinois-–It was a foregone conclusion before the start of the women's 6k race that the team title at the Big Ten Cross Country Championships at the Orange and Blue Golf Course hosted by the University of Illinois would either go to the University of Washington or the University of Oregon, the two schools from the Pacific Northwest.
If you believed the polls, one would have thought that this was Washington's to lose with the Huskies ranked number two in the national USTFCCCA coaches' poll, while Oregon was ranked 17th.
That said, if you weren't paying attention, Oregon was playing possum through the regular season meets, holding out a number of key runners.
The two biggest keys to Oregon's team victory by a convincing 33-60 margin over the Huskies were Silan Ayyildiz and Klaudia Kazimierska, who finished first and eleventh, respectively.
Ayyildiz worked her was to the front at the end of the first of three laps of 2000 meters, joining a group of nine, including Julia David-Smith and India Weir of the Huskies,
At the end of lap two, the group was down to seven, with three Ducks, and the closest Husky, David-Smith in ninth.
In the end, Ayyildiz took the win in 19:14 with Maddy Elmore second, a second behind.
Washington was led by Chloe Foerster (left, #305/Paul Merca photo) in sixth in 19:35, followed by David-Smith in ninth at 19:40, and Weir in tenth in the same time.
Foerster was 27th at 2k before she began moving up and she still went from 13th to 6th over the final kilometer.
Oregon put their five scorers in the top twelve, while Maeve Stiles finished 17th in 19:44, and Sophie O'Sullivan 18th in 19:46, giving the Huskies an impressive 1-5 split of 11 seconds.
The Ducks ran a 1-5 split of 28 seconds, but placing three in the top seven, plus a 1-2 finish up front trumped the Huskies' low team split.
Eleventh ranked Wisconsin was a distant third with 133 points, followed by Penn State at 134, and Minnesota fifth with 146.
“I thought our women ran great today, they closed hard, they had 14 seconds one to six, so they’re improving and getting better every week,” said Head Coach Maurica Powell. “But we got beat by a good team today with two really low sticks in almost a dual meet format. But we ran really well and I think we still have a shot here to be a top-four team at the end of the season which is what we’re trying to do. We’ve been good on that Wisconsin course, so we’ll keep doing what we’re doing and try to get a little better in two weeks.”
MEN'S RECAP...
In the men’s 8k, ninth-ranked Wisconsin took it out aggressively from the start and the Huskies were running in fourth at the halfway point, a full 50 points behind Oregon and 47 points behind Wisconsin.
At 7k, with just 1K to go, the Badgers still led the Huskies by 42 points but the Dawgs closed to within just two points of the Ducks.
While the Huskies continued to push, with their top-three gaining a combined 18 places over the final kilometer, Wisconsin hung on to win with 46 points with the Huskies closing to within just 12 points at the finish with 58. Oregon also finished with 58 but the Huskies won the tiebreak with three of their five scorers finishing ahead of their respective scorers for Oregon.
Wisconsin's Bob Liking became the fourth man to win four straight Big Ten individual titles, covering the course in 22:48.
The Badgers put three runners in the top ten, while the Huskies put two, led by Nathan Green (#495/Paul Merca photo), who finished third in 22:57, with Evan Jenkins sixth in 22:58.
Jamar Distel gained seventeen spots over the final 2K to finish 14th in 23:06, while Tyrone Gorze was 16th in 23:09, and Leo Daschbach was 19th in 23:11 to round out the Husky quintet, as their 1-5 split was 14 seconds.
Michigan State was fourth with 125, and Michigan was fifth with 158.
“Wisconsin is probably one of the top teams in the country, so to be within 12 points of them is pretty good,” said Head Coach Andy Powell. “I think we were closing on them, they were starting to come back to us, with a little bit more room we could have caught them. I think over 10k, for the regional and national meet, I like our chances there.”
“Nathan Green in more ways than one continues to impress,” said Powell. “Being our top runner, but being the leader of our team. He’s vocal, the guys listen to him and follow him. He was our low stick, but his leadership qualities and the stuff he does outside the race is super impressive.”
The Huskies will finally race on the West Coast for the first time since their dual with Seattle U. to open up the season, but they still head to the east side of the state for West Regionals in Colfax November 15th. With a solid performance there the Huskies should progress on to the NCAA Championships back in Madison on November 23rd.
NOTE: The Big Ten Conference and the sports information office of the University of Washington contributed to this report.
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