UW men fifth, women fourth at Big Ten Championships...
In the opening men's 8k race, Washington's Jamar Distel (photo courtesy UW Athletics) wasn't afraid to put himself in the lead group, and actually led the race along with Michigan State's Riley Hough through the first of two 4k loops of the Forest Akers East Golf Course.
The duo led through the 4k in 11:48, with Oregon's Evan Bishop and eventual winner Abdel Laadjel just a step or two behind.
Distel hung on for another kilometer before the two Ducks and Hough started to pull away.
Laadjel took the victory, finishing in 23:12, with Hough second in 23:19, and Michigan State's Thomas Westphal third in 23:26.
Distel, who finished 14th at last year's Big Ten meet, finished fifth in a time of 23:30.
Behind Distel for Washington were Nathan Neil in 21st at 23:57, followed by Isaac Briggs in 30th at 24:11.
Reuben Reina was Washington's fourth scorer in 38th at 24:17, and Thomas Diamond was 47th in 24:25.
The Huskies 1-5 split was 55 seconds.
Oregon, the nation's number 10 team in the USTFCCCA Division I coaches' poll, put three runners in the top six to win their first Big Ten title with 36 points.
Host Michigan State, ranked number 13, was second with 68 points, followed by number 15 Wisconsin with 90 points. Number 25 Michigan was fourth with 100 points, followed by the Huskies with 135.
In the women's 6k race, it was wall to wall Oregon, as in a performance almost reminiscent of Washington's 2008 performance at the Pac-10 championships, the Ducks placed all five scorers in the top seven, led by winner Diana Cherotich's time of 19:32.
Chloe Foerster, who was sixth at last year's Big Ten championships, led the way for Washington, finishing 11th in 20:20.
Maeve Stiles was 15th in 20:26, and the surprise of the season for the Dawgs, Abby DeVeau, was 19th in 20:31.
Mia Cochran finished 22nd in 20:34, and Samantha Tran, the Michigan transfer, closed out the UW scorers in 20:53. Washington finished with a 1-5 split of 33 seconds.
Oregon finished with a Big Ten record low score of 18 points. The previous low score at the Big Tens was by Wisconsin in 1985, when they scored 22 points.
Behind the number four ranked Ducks, number 12 Penn State was runner-up with 78 points ahead of number 8 Northwestern at 96. Number 20 Washington (103), number 24 Michigan State (147) both finished ahead of 19th ranked Wisconsin (164).
NOTE: The Big Ten Conference and the sports information office of the University of Washington contributed to this report.
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