MADISON, Wisc. – The Husky women's cross country team had opened some eyes with its first two runs this season, moving from preseason 11th up to No. 4 in the national polls, but today Washington left no doubt about its status as a national contender, as the Huskies claimed the team title at the Wisconsin Invitational, knocking off the No. 1 and No. 3 teams in the country in the process. The UW men finished 16th, getting wins over five ranked teams.
Junior Amy-Eloise Neale and sophomore Charlotte Prouse finished fourth and fifth to lead the Huskies over the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course, but again UW displayed outstanding depth, as all seven Huskies finished in the top-50 out of a field of over 200 runners, that featured 18 of the top-30 ranked schools in the largest and most talented race of the regular season.
The Dawgs won the Wisconsin title for the second time, and first since 2011, when UW went on to finish second at the NCAA Championships. The Huskies finished with 124 total points, ahead of the 166 points of third-ranked North Carolina State, and the 170 points of No. 1 Providence. Last year's NCAA Champion, New Mexico, was fourth with 207 points, with 21st-ranked Baylor and 19th-ranked San Francisco getting big runs for fifth and sixth, respectively. Thirty-one teams total were in the field, the same number that will run at NCAAs next month.
Prouse ran at the front from the beginning, holding the overall lead at the 2k split and tied for the lead at 4k. Neale was hanging around 10th for much of the race, but used a strong finish to cross the line fourth in 20-minutes, 5-seconds, with Prouse fifth in 20:08. Boise State's Brenna Peloquin got the win in 20:00.
Head Coach Greg Metcalf was certainly pleased with the effort. "Our women were out aggressive and they raced hard and we had seven solid performances today, eight with Izzi (Batt-Doyle) in the open race," he said. "I thought we had a shot today if we just were competitive and assertive. We had a monster lead at the halfway point and just kept hammering to the finish line. Charlotte and Amy to be top-five were just fantastic performances today, their best ever on the big stage."
Washington's freshman duo continued to deliver today, and the Huskies got perhaps the best career run from their lone senior, Kaylee Flanagan. Freshman Kaitlyn Neal placed 34th in 20:47 in her first big test, with Flanagan right behind in 36th-place in 20:49, an improvement of 34 places from her finish a year ago. Freshman Nikki Zielinski capped the team score in 45th-place in 20:57. Juniors Anna Maxwell and Katie Knight finished seconds later, Maxwell placing 48th in 20:58 and Knight in 20:59 for 50th-place.
"Kaylee has just done a great job and she's a senior and doing what you hope a senior would do," said Metcalf. "She has been fantastic all fall every day and today was her best race at this meet. Then Kaitlyn and Nikki are just freaking tough, they both went out and stuck their nose in it and engaged and ran really well."
photo by David Stluka
For one measurement of UW's depth, Knight as the seventh Husky in 50th was 66 places ahead of the top No. 7 runner on any other team in the field, as Providence's No. 7 finisher was 116th overall.
Furthermore, the day began fittingly with a Husky victory in the "B" race, as Izzi Batt-Doyle led five more Husky women over the same course an hour before the invitational races. Batt-Doyle took over the lead late to beat a field of 118 runners in a time of 21:05, a time that would have put her around 64th if she had run it in the invite, which would have been a top-five finisher for every team except UW and Providence. Sophomore Emily Hamlin also had a strong sixth-place finish in the open race in 21:27.
With the three championship races now to come, Metcalf likes how the Huskies are operating. "Every week that you have good training and you go run a solid race it builds confidence in your group and right now I think our group is very confident. The season has lots of excitement left in it but it's fun to be here in the middle of October with a win at a meet of this caliber."
The 23rd-ranked Husky men finished 16th overall with 416 points, just three points behind 18th-ranked Boise State which was 15th with 413.
Junior Fred Huxham led the Huskies for the first time in his career, finishing 37th in 24:27. Junior Colby Gilbert was in the top-10 at the halfway point, but fell back late and finished 63rd in 24:45. Johnathan Stevens and Andrew Gardner crossed side by side in 90th and 91st places in 24:55. Sophomore Mahmoud Moussa was the No. 5 scorer for the men in 135th-place with a time of 25:20, with redshirt freshmen Andy Snyder finishing 180th and Julius Diehr placing 196th in their first time racing for the Dawgs on the road.
While the Dawgs would have liked to crack the top-10, they still beat out five ranked teams, as 22nd-ranked Michigan State finished behind the Dawgs in 18th, 24th-ranked Providence was 19th, 25th-ranked Penn was 20th, 15th-ranked Eastern Kentucky was 26th, and 29th-ranked Illinois was 27th.
"The goal was to be in the top-10 so it wasn't a great day, but the West Region accomplished a lot which is good," said Metcalf. "Fred made a lot of progress from two weeks ago. Colby will be much better as we move forward, and I thought it was just an average day for Johnny and Andrew, with Mahmoud running solid. But so you walk away, learn where you're at, and hopefully be much better in two weeks."
Two weeks will take the Huskies to the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships, this year held in Tucson, Arizona, on Friday, Oct. 28.
