University of Washington
NCAA Championships
All-America Trio Leads XC To Top-25 Finishes
November 22, 2014 | Cross Country
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Another cross country season is in the books, and the Huskies walked away from the NCAA Championships today with three newly minted All-Americans, and a couple of top-25 team finishes. Senior Aaron Nelson and junior Tyler King become the first Husky men's duo to earn All-America honors at the same championships, and junior Maddie Meyers capped her breakout junior season with her first All-America honor as well.
Nelson backed up his 20th-place finish from last season with a 21st-place effort today at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course, becoming the first Husky men's cross country runner to earn multiple All-America awards. He ran the 10,000-meter course in 30-minutes, 42-seconds. King came through with the best race of his Husky career, placing 40th in 30:56 to grab the final All-America spot.
Their efforts led the Husky men to 20th in the team race. The women's team finished 23rd overall led by Meyers, who finished 27th overall running the 6,000-meters in 20:32. She's the first All-American for the women's squad since 2011. This is the eighth-straight top-25 finish for the women's team, while the men were making their first NCAA run since 2009, earning their fourth top-25 finish in the past nine years.
Head Coach Greg Metcalf was thrilled with the efforts of the top-40 trio today, but felt that some of Washington's inexperience at the national meet showed. Only Nelson, Meyers, and junior Eleanor Fulton had run at NCAAs before among either Husky team.
“Our women are young and if you haven't come here before it's hard to really grasp what it's all about,” said Metcalf. “Early on we just didn't give ourselves a shot. The pace was sort of fast, but if you have four women in the team in the last fifty spots two kilometers in that's sort of ominous. The silver lining is Maddie is earns her first All-America honor and that's awesome. She put herself in the top-40 and moved from there. For our ladies, getting to the meet was probably the big deal at the beginning of the year and we did that. A lot of women will learn from this and get better.”
After Meyers, the next Husky finisher on the women's side was freshman Anna Maxwell in 124th. The Felton, Calif. Native placed 124th overall in 21:23. Junior Erin Johnson was third in 177th-place followed by Fulton in 186th and redshirt freshman Kelly Lawson in 196th-place. Sophomore Kaylee Flanagan was 203rd and freshman Anastasia Kosykh was 217th out of 255 finishers.
The men's race remained very bunched up for more than half the 10k, with Nelson and King positioning themselves well in the front of the huge pack. They remained in the top-40 throughout, but there was too much of a gap behind King for the Huskies to make a run at the top-10. Junior Meron Simon finished 154th in his first NCAA run, and Izaic Yorks was close behind in 159th in 32:01. Redshirt freshman Colby Gilbert capped the scoring in 195th-place, followed by freshman Fred Huxham in 216th and A.J. Yarnall in 244th.
“The men's side today, to have two men be All-American, I would have bet we'd be a top-ten team,” said Metcalf. “But Aaron Nelson, for him to be a repeat All-American in cross country is a huge testament to the work that he's done. And Tyler, that's the best race of his career. But it takes five. Meron and Izaic just didn't have their best, and Colby struggled today, he's just way better than that. But to finish 20th, it's nothing to hang your head about, but I think we missed an opportunity today. But I'm still very proud of the season our men had.”
NCAA Cross Country Championships
Terre Haute, Ind. – Nov. 22, 2014
LaVern Gibson Championship Course
Women's 6,000-meters
Team Results: 1. Michigan State 85; 2. Iowa State 147; 3. New Mexico 188; 4. Georgetown 189; 5. Arkansas 209; 6. Oregon 249; 7. Colorado 267; 8. West Virginia 277; 9. Iona 377; 10. Wisconsin 382; 11. Boise State 392; 12. Florida State 393; 13. Providence 401; 14. Stanford 415; 15. Virginia 433; 16. North Carolina State 456; 17. William & Mary 463; 18. Michigan 474; 19. Baylor 479; 20. Dartmouth 508; 21. Boston College 514; 22. North Carolina 515; 23. Washington 559; 24. Syracuse 559; 25. Virginia Tech 574; 26. Ohio State 577; 27. UCLA 583; 28. Vanderbilt 598; 29. Notre Dame 609; 30. Toledo 613; 31. Minnesota 663.
Individual Champion: Kate Avery, Iona, 19:31.
Husky Finishers: 27. Maddie Meyers 20:32; 124. Anna Maxwell 21:23; 177. Erin Johnson 21:44; 186. Eleanor Fulton 21:48; 196. Kelly Lawson 21:54; 203. Kaylee Flanagan 21:57; 217. Anastasia Kosykh 22:08.
Men's 10,000-meters
Team Results: 1. Colorado 65; 2. Stanford 98; 3. Portland 175; 4. Northern Arizona 188; 5. Syracuse 206; 6. Oregon 221; 7. Villanova 230; 8. Iona 270; 9. Oklahoma State 296; 10. Wisconsin 335; 11. Michigan 365; 12. North Carolina 380; 13. Providence 393; 14. New Mexico 394; 15. Indiana 416; 16. BYU 437; 17. Georgetown 444; 18. UCLA 454; 19. Colorado State 468; 20. Washington 479; 21. Virginia 502; 22. Southern Utah 578; 23. Eastern Kentucky 579; 24. Michigan State 583; 25. Tulsa 584; 26. Texas 615; 27. UTEP 629; 28. Arkansas 647; 29. Mississippi 685; 30. Furman 747; 31. Florida State 822.
Individual Champion: Edward Cheserek, Oregon, 30:19.
Husky Finishers: 21. Aaron Nelson 30:42; 40. Tyler King 30:56; 154. Meron Simon 31:58; 159. Izaic Yorks 32:01; 195. Colby Gilbert 32:31; 216. Fred Huxham 32:52; 244. A.J. Yarnall 34:38.
Players Mentioned
