Historic Pair Of Top-10s For Huskies At Nationals

Saturday, November 21

Louisville, KY

9:00 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Championships

Photo by: Washington Athletics

November 21, 2015 | Cross Country

By: Washington Athletics

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the first time in program history, both Husky cross country teams earned Top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships on the same day. Behind All-American performances from Washington natives Maddie Meyers, Izaic Yorks, and Colby Gilbert, the women's team finished tenth, and the men then finished eighth, the second-best finish ever for the men's team, and best during Head Coach Greg Metcalf's tenure.

What started out as a perfectly mild fall day at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park gradually worsened into a storm that hit right at the end of the men's race. But conditions were perfect for the women's 6,000-meters.

The Huskies came in ranked 12^th, and were able to beat that by a couple spots with the 10^th-place showing. The women earned their sixth top-10 finish at nationals in the past nine years, and first since a ninth-place finish in 2012. They nearly finished much higher, as UW scored 297 points, just 33 points away from fifth-place North Carolina State with 264, while it was the same 33-point gap between Washington and 11^th-place Boise State (330). New Mexico won the women's team title with a dominant 49 point performance.

Your All-American Dawgs! Izaic, Maddie, and Colby with Coach Metcalf.

A photo posted by UW Track (@uwtrack) on Nov 21, 2015 at 11:36am PST

Meyers, the Seattle native and senior in cross country, though just a junior in track, was 27^th a year ago at nationals, but showed she wanted even more this year. She was 25^th at the 2k split and continued to stay right at the back of the lead pack, and she stayed on the leaders until two runners finally gapped the rest of the field. But Meyers stayed strong to the finish, earning the first top-10 finish by a Husky since Katie Flood was seventh in 2011. She's the fourth Husky woman in the top-10 since 2008, and the sixth all-time.

“I thought if we just did our thing and took care of business that two top-10 finishes was a possibility,” said Coach Metcalf after the awards were passed out at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville today. “Our women, we were close, we were only thirty points out of fifth-place today, and I think it was there, but to be top-10 and finish higher than our ranking is still a good day. Maddie Meyers, that was a phenomenal run today from her and a perfect end to her cross country career.”

After Meyers, who covered the 6,000-meters in 20-minutes, 3-seconds, the second Husky finisher was freshman Charlotte Prouse who took 78^th in 20:42, a great first effort in the year's toughest race. Sophomore Katie Knight was 95^th in 20:49, sophomore Anna Maxwell was 107^th in 20:52, and junior Kaylee Flanagan was 134^th in 21:03. Those were all career-best finishes at NCAAs for those three. Senior Eleanor Fulton was 170^th in her final cross country race in 21:20, and freshman Emily Hamlin rounded out the top-seven in 226^th.

Meyers

Meyers on the podium with her eighth-place trophy.

The men battled for 10,000-meters today, with plenty of time for maneuvering and late drama, and the Huskies had some of that themselves today. With two thousand meters to go, the scores showed the Huskies sitting in 13^th-place, but a strong final push, especially from sophomore Andrew Gardner, helped the Dawgs climb five places into the top-10, while Yorks and Gilbert gave UW a pair of All-Americans for the second straight year.

Washington ended up eighth with 345 points, while Syracuse took the title with 82, dethroning Colorado which finished second with 91. The Pac-12 produced four of the top-eight teams, as Stanford was third with 151 points and Oregon was fourth with 183.

The eighth-place finish for the UW men matches the 1993 squad for the second-best finish ever. Only the 1989 team that placed fourth overall had a better day.

Last season, Aaron Nelson and Tyler King each finished in the top-40 to give UW a pair of All-Americans for the first time ever on the men's side. Fast forward to today, and the Huskies repeated that feat with two different men, giving them four All-Americans over the past two years, easily the most in program history in consecutive years.

Yorks, the Lakewood, Wash. native, and Gilbert from Vancouver, Wash., were in close contact for much of the race, hanging around the top-40 the entire way. Halfway through the race, Yorks was 27^th and Gilbert was 33^rd, but the Dawgs were just 13^th as Gardner was just 141^st overall, up from 197^th at the 2k split.

Yorks and Gilbert finished out their tremendous runs, as Yorks placed 30^th in 30:19, and Gilbert was one second, and two places back in 32^nd in 30:20. Meanwhile, after 8,000-meters, Gardner was 130^th, but he passed 34 more runners over the final stretch to finish as UW's No. 3 runner in 96^th-place and help cut the Husky team score.

Results currently putting the Dawgs 8th! Still sorting pic.twitter.com/Z74MiN8k5o
— UW Track (@UWTrack) November 21, 2015

Sophomore Fred Huxham was 100^th today, an improvement of over a hundred places from a year ago. Sophomore Johnathan Stevens also stepped up with a 178^th-place finish that capped UW's scoring. Stevens also made up 15 places over the final 2k to help the Huskies finish strong. Redshirt freshman Mahmoud Moussa got his first NCAA run, placing 237^th.

The toughest result of the day for Coach Metcalf was senior Tyler King not being able to have his best performance in his final cross country meet. After leading UW to its first Regional title last week, King struggled today, finishing 248^th overall.

“The guys, gosh, I feel bad, Tyler King has been such a great kid for us and had a great career, and just didn't have it today,” said Metcalf. “But the rest of our guys, they ran fantastic to get eighth-place takes a lot of grit and determination, and to have two All-Americans in Izaic and Colby, Izaic being a miler and stepping up to be an All-American in cross country, and Colby coming through late in the season for us, it's great for both of them. Then we had two guys, Andrew and Johnny, they passed about fifty people combined over the last two thousand meters to take us from 13^th place into the top-10.

“All in all, to have two top-10 finishes, and three All-Americans, that's a pretty good day.”

Washington Cross Country

NCAA Cross Country Championships

November 21, 2015

Louisville, Ky. – E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park

Women's 6,000-meters

Team Results (Top-20): 1. New Mexico 49; 2. Colorado 129; 3. Oregon 214; 4. Providence 231; 5. North Carolina State 264; 6. Michigan 264; 7. Oklahoma State 274; 8. Notre Dame 276; 9. Arkansas 276; 10. Washington 297; 11. Boise State 330; 12. Syracuse 359; 13. Michigan State 368; 14. Stanford 379; 15. Virginia 386; 16. Penn State 396; 17. Mississippi State 405; 18. Minnesota 471; 19. Vanderbilt 474; 20. Georgetown 491.

Individual Champion: Molly Seidel, Notre Dame, 19:28.

Husky Finishers (Top-40 All-American): 8. Maddie Meyers 20:03; 78. Charlotte Prouse 20:42; 95. Katie Knight 20:49; 107. Anna Maxwell 20:52; 134. Kaylee Flanagan 21:03; 170. Eleanor Fulton 21:20; 226. Emily Hamlin 22:03.

Men's 10,000-meters

Team Results (Top-20): 1. Syracuse 82; 2. Colorado 91; 3. Stanford 151; 4. Oregon 183; 5. Iona 231; 6. Arkansas 244; 7. Louisville 331; 8. Washington 345; 9. Michigan 348; 10. Georgetown 352; 11. UTEP 354; 12. BYU 406; 13. Furman 423; 14. UCLA 429; 15. Oklahoma 432; 16. Boise State 435; 17. Eastern Kentucky 446; 18. Oklahoma State 450; 19. Minnesota 464; 20. Tulsa 468.

Individual Champion: Edward Cheserek, Oregon, 28:45.

Husky Finishers (Top-40 All-American): 30. Izaic Yorks 30:19; 32. Colby Gilbert 30:20; 96. Andrew Gardner 30:55; 100. Fred Huxham 30:58; 178. Johnathan Stevens 31:41; 237. Mahmoud Moussa 33:00; 249. Tyler King 34:20.