Neale Wins Pac-12 Women’s Cross Championship

Friday, October 28

Tucson, Ariz.

9:30 AM

University of Washington

Pac-12 Cross Country Championships

October 28, 2016 | Cross Country

Women's Results Men's Results Neale Finds Success After 'Humbling' Experience

By: UW Athletic Communications

TUCSON, Ariz. – It had been a three year wait for Amy-Eloise Neale to run at the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships. Two weeks ago, after finishing fourth in the elite Wisconsin Invitational, Neale said she thought she might never be good at cross country again. But today she's the Pac-12 Women's Champion, winning a thrilling three-woman battle to the finish line at the Randolph North Golf Course in Arizona.

Neale, the junior from Snohomish, Wash., led the second-ranked Huskies to a second-place finish behind national No. 1 Colorado. It's Washington's best Pac-12 finish on the women's side since they were runners-up in 2011. That was also the year of the previous individual win for UW, as Katie Flood won that year, also in Arizona. Neale joins Flood, 2008 champion Kendra Schaaf, and 1982 NorPac Champion Regina Joyce as the only Huskies to win the conference title.

The Buffaloes defended their team title with 33 points, while the Huskies were second with 74 points, ahead of No. 11 Stanford which ran strong for third with 83, and fifth-ranked Oregon which finished fourth with 88 points. 17th-ranked Utah was fifth with 169 and 25th-ranked Cal finished sixth with 184 points, while No. 23 UCLA was seventh with 201.

Why should you never ever EVER give up?

Let's ask @UWTrack's Amy-Eloise Neale, the 2016 #Pac12XC women's individual champ. pic.twitter.com/7eaWUORfW1
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) October 28, 2016

The Husky men's team was led by junior Andrew Gardner who had a career-best 18th-place finish. The men were seventh today, scoring 187 points, as Colorado won the men's side as well, upsetting No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 Oregon. The Pac-12 featured five top-15 teams, none of which the Dawgs could pick off this afternoon in the very hot conditions. The Buffs scored 41 for the win, followed by Stanford with 47, UCLA with 58, Oregon with 94, Washington State with 130, California with 163, then the Huskies, finishing ahead of Arizona State and Arizona.

But Neale's finish was the highlight, as she lurked around the back of the top-10 for most of the race, then similar to her finish at Wisconsin, she closed on the leaders with a kilometer to go. Coming around the final turn with a little over 200-meters to the finish, it was Neale and Colorado's Erin Clark and Dani Jones contending. Clark had a step on Neale for most of the final straightaway, but Neale's 1,500-meter speed kicked in and she pulled even and ahead of Clark over the final 10 meters to win with a time of 20-minutes, 22.9-seconds. Clark was just .04 seconds behind her in second-place and Jones was one more second behind in third.

"I actually didn't realize it was quite that close," said Neale, who missed the last two cross country seasons recovering from a stress fracture and IT band issues. "With a hundred meters to go I realized that I hadn't lost the race yet. So I just really tried to remember all the speedwork that we've done, we've done some pretty good three-hundreds workouts now and just tried to keep that in mind. After Head Coach Greg Metcalf reminded her that she's the new Pac-12 Champion, Neale laughed and replied, "I'm very surprised."

"To see Amy-Eloise Neale go win a Pac-12 Championship in the manner that she did says a lot," said Head Coach Greg Metcalf. "She gets passed, she battles back; I'd say that last hundred meters sort of defined her last couple years. She never gave up, she stayed in it, she persevered. She never stopped believing, not that she didn't have moments along the way, but for Amy-Eloise to be the Pac-12 Champion is just an incredible testament to the young woman that she is and the athlete that she is."

Sophomore Charlotte Prouse was in the mix from the gun as usual this season, and she came across in sixth-place with a time of 20:32, which should earn her an All-Pac-12 First Team selection. The third Husky across was junior Katie Knight in 19th-place in 21:09, and freshman Kaitlyn Neal was close behind in 21st-place in 21:14. Closing out the team scoring was junior Izzi Batt-Doyle, who cracked UW's top-five for the first time today, as she was 28th overall in 21:26. Junior Anna Maxwell then finished 30th in 21:31. Freshman Nikki Zielinski was 50th in her first Pac-12s, and sophomore Emily Hamlin was right alongside in 51st-place. Senior Kaylee Flanagan was 64th, with freshman Katherine Penner rounding out the lineup in 80th-place.

"At the start of the year I thought we could be fourth at the Pac-12s and then fourth at the NCAA Championships, and the conference is setting up for something like that to be the case," Metcalf said. "Oregon was really good today and Stanford was improved, but the Buffs were really, really good. Back in 2011, the Buffs won, we were second, and we barely beat Stanford for third, and we were able to turn the tables at Nationals and get a trophy. We hope we'll be able to do the same, but Colorado was really good today. I was proud of our women, I think they battled in some challenging conditions.

"Charlotte ran great today, Katie Knight was in the mix. Kaitlyn Neal lost her shoe a thousand meters in so she ran 5k without a shoe on and she's a tough young woman. We got a good run from Izzi today. We've got interchangeable parts but we needed all of them firing to win. So to be second in our conference, we've got to go recover and be ready to be much better in three weeks' time."

Gardner was the epitome of patience today, as he was near the back of the full field after the first of the four 2,000-meter loops. But his conservative approach in the heat worked well, as he continued to move up throughout the entire meet. Gardner crossed 18th with a time of 24:53. Junior Fred Huxham was next to finish in 31st-place in 25:07. Junior Colby Gilbert finished 45th in 25:32, junior Johnathan Stevens was 56th in 26:30, and sophomore Mahmoud Moussa capped the top-five scorers in 61st-place in a time of 26:22.

"The heat was something we talked about endlessly over the last few days. It was hot, for the men especially it was 90-plus degrees, and I think it affected us and Oregon more than anybody," said Metcalf. "Our guys we finish seventh and it's not too exciting. Andrew Gardner ran great, but other than that we have to recharge and reload for the NCAA West Regional in two weeks."

Washington will now head to the NCAA West Regionals in two weeks in Sacramento, the final stop before NCAAs. The women have all but assured themselves of advancing to Terre Haute while the men will need to bring their best and beat some teams to make a third-straight NCAA appearance.