No. 7 Women Go For Podium, Huxham Aims For All-America

Saturday, November 19

Terre Haute, Ind.

8:00 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Championships

November 17, 2016 | Cross Country

Meet Notes

By: UW Athletic Communications

NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Saturday, Nov. 19 - Terre Haute, Ind. - LaVern Gibson Championship Course

8:00 a.m. Pacific - Women's 6k
9:00 a.m. Pacific - Men's 10k

Live Results | Live Video

SEATTLE - Not all roads may lead to Terre Haute, but they do for the nation's best cross country teams and individuals. The NCAA Cross Country Championships return to Indiana once again, to the LaVern Gibson Championship Course, which has hosted the final race in 12 of the past 15 years. Washington brings a seventh-ranked women's squad looking to run its way onto the podium, along with Fred Huxham competing individually in the men's race and targeting his first All-America honor.

This Saturday, Nov. 19, the NCAA titles will be settled over 6,000-meters for the women and 10,000-meters for the men. The women's race will be up first at 11 a.m. Eastern time, 8 a.m. Pacific, with the Huskies one of the 31 teams to make the cut. Huxham will then take on the massive men's field at 12 noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

The race will be broadcast live online at Flotrack.org.

Washington's women are making their 20th NCAA Championships appearance over the last 22 years, and their 10th in a row. In the previous nine years, the Huskies have finished in the top-10 six times, including a 10th-place finish last year. But UW is looking for a trophy and a podium spot, which go to the top four teams. The last Husky podium finish was 2011 when the Dawgs were NCAA runners-up. UW also had a third-place finish in 2009 and won the NCAA title in 2008.

The Huskies have been ranked as high as No. 2 this season, but head into NCAAs ranked No. 7 following runner-up finishes at the Pac-12 Championships and the West Regional Championships. The Dawgs won their first three meets of the year, at the home Sundodger and Washington Invitationals, and then earning their best win of the season at the Wisconsin Invitational over 19 ranked teams.

Leading the pack this season has been junior Amy-Eloise Neale and sophomore Charlotte Prouse, who have both been top-10 at every race this season, and have combined to win four of the five races UW has competed in. Prouse got the wins at the Sundodger and Washington Invite meets early this season, and has kept up a frontrunner's mindset at the championship meets, as she was sixth at Pac-12s to earn All-Pac-12 First Team honors, and then was 10th at West Regionals.

Neale has been one of the big surprises in the NCAA this season, and has two straight victories to her name heading into nationals. Neale did not race in the past two cross country campaigns due to injury, but after a tremendous comeback 2016 track season, she has carried that to an historic fall. Neale won the Pac-12 individual title with a thrilling kick to pull ahead of Colorado's Erin Clark and win by .04 seconds. She then pulled away late in the West Regional meet to win by 13 seconds, becoming the first Husky ever to win both championships back-to-back. Neale will be one of the invited athletes to speak at the NCAA pre-meet press conference this week.

A deep roster has seen several Dawgs rotate in different spots in the top-seven behind Neale and Prouse. A constant presence has been junior Katie Knight, who was 19th at Pac-12s and 24th at West Regionals as the No. 3 UW finisher in both races. Knight was the 2015 Pac-12 10k champ on the track and the Dawgs will need a strong run from her to reach its podium goals.

Freshman Kaitlyn Neal has been in the scoring top-five at every race for the Dawgs, highlighted by a 34th-place finish at Wisconsin and a 21st-place effort at her first Pac-12 meet. She'll look to help push the Huskies across the finish line, along with another true freshman Nikki Zielinski who has also been in the top-seven each time out this season.

The lone Husky senior is Kaylee Flanagan, set to race at her third and final NCAA Championships and looking to make this one the best individual and team finish she has been a part of. Flanagan was 134th last year as the fifth Husky finisher. Her best run came in the big field of Wisconsin, as she was 36th there and fourth on the team.

Juniors Izzi Batt-Doyle and Anna Maxwell round out the eight Huskies heading for Terre Haute, of which seven will be on the starting line Saturday. Batt-Doyle has come on strong this fall starting with a win in the B-race at Wisconsin. She then helped secure the runner-up finish at Pac-12s by scoring in the top-five for the first time with a 28th-place finish. The transfer from St. John's and native Australian then was fifth on the team again, in 29th-place, at Regionals. This will be her first trip to Nationals. Maxwell placed 30th at Pac-12s before resting at Regionals. She had a 48th-place finish at the Wisconsin Invite and a ninth-place finish at the Washington Invite, and ran 107th overall at NCAAs a year ago as the No. 4 Dawg.

Huxham punched his ticket to NCAAs with the best West Regional finish by a Husky man since 1993, as he took third last week in Sacramento. The junior had a delayed start to his season due to a minor summer training injury, but after sitting out the Sundodger, he showed he was in strong form with a 37th-place finish at Wisconsin which led the Huskies. He was 31st at Pac-12s but broke through with a 29:47 10k time at Regionals. Huxham will try to become the fifth different Husky cross country All-American in the past three years, joining Aaron Nelson, Tyler King, Izaic Yorks, and Colby Gilbert.