Men Look For Big Run At Regionals, Women Favored

Friday, November 11

Sacramento, Calif.

11:00 AM

University of Washington

NCAA West Regional

November 10, 2016 | Cross Country

West Regional Info Page Live Results

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE - The fifth and final stop before the NCAA Championships comes this Friday, as the Huskies visit Sacramento for the NCAA West Regional Championships. Hosted by Sacramento State at the Haggin Oaks Golf Course, Regionals will ultimately determine the 31 men's teams and 31 women's teams that move on to nationals. Race times are 11 a.m. for the women and 12 p.m. for the men.

The fourth-ranked UW women's team has a straightforward path to NCAAs if it has a solid day on Friday, but the men's team is eager to turn in its best performance of the year, and the Dawgs will likely need to outrun some higher-ranked squads to earn a third straight trip to NCAAs. The men can look back to a year ago, when they were the surprise winners at West Regionals, capturing the first title in program history. The women have won Regionals six times, including most recently four in a row from 2008-11. The women are attempting to lock up a 10th-straight NCAA Championships bid, and a 20th in the past 22 years. While the women continue to run 6,000-meters, the men now step up to 10,000-meters for the first time this season.

The West Regional meet is one of nine Regional races around the country, all of which will take place on Friday. The top-two teams in each gender at every Regional automatically advance to NCAAs, making for 18 teams auto advancing. The next 13 "at-large" qualifiers will be determined by a process of counting up "points" that teams earned with wins over other NCAA qualifiers throughout the year, with the order of finish at Regionals also playing a large part.

Washington is the highest-ranked team in the West Region at No. 4, but will be challenged once again by No. 7 Stanford, and No. 11 Oregon, both of which UW beat by close margins at the Pac-12 Championships, as well as 10th-ranked Portland and 16th-ranked San Francisco looking to break up the Pac-12 teams up front.

The UW men are receiving votes but are outside of the top-30 for the first time this season. The West Region is typically very strong on the men's side, led by No. 4 Stanford, No. 8 UCLA, No. 10 Oregon, and No. 12 Portland. Outpacing any of those squads or 17th-ranked Washington State, 20th-ranked Boise State, or California would be key to the Husky men's chances of making NCAAs. The men are ranked eighth in the most recent West Region rankings.

The women traveled eight women and will run seven on Friday. Pac-12 Champion Amy-Eloise Neale and All-Pac-12 First Teamer Charlotte Prouse look to continue pacing the Dawgs up front, and they'll be joined by senior Kaylee Flanagan, juniors Katie Knight, Anna Maxwell, Izzi Batt-Doyle, and freshmen Kaitlyn Neal and Nikki Zielinski.

Seven men will travel and race, including juniors Andrew Gardner, Colby Gilbert, Fred Huxham, and Johnathan Stevens, sophomore Mahmoud Moussa, and redshirt freshmen Julius Diehr and Andy Snyder.