TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Pac-12 and Regional Champion Amy-Eloise Neale capped off her breakthrough cross country season with a top-10 finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships today, leading the Husky women's squad to a 12th-place finish. Neale becomes the seventh Husky woman to finish in the top-10 at NCAAs and earns her first cross country All-America honor.
The seventh-ranked Dawgs came into nationals hoping for a top-four finish but could not get everything to fall in place today on a very cold and windy day at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course. Upsets abounded in both races, as the 12th-ranked Oregon women's team shocked everyone by pulling out a one-point victory over No. 5 Michigan, 125 to 126, and unanimous No. 1 Colorado settled for third with 134 points. The Huskies scored 352 points for 12th, having beaten Oregon in three previous meetings this year.
In addition to the women's race, junior Fred Huxham was racing as an individual in the men's 10,000-meters. Huxham matched his 2015 national finish by crossing the line in exactly 100th-place in 30-minutes, 51-seconds. Fred Huxham hit exactly 100th at NCAAs for the second straight year.
Neale matched the eighth-place finish that Maddie Meyers achieved last season for the Dawgs. Similar to most of her races this season, Neale had the leaders in sight through the first half of the race but was not among the top-10. She gradually worked her way up from around 25th into the top-10 and was still moving well down the final homestretch. Her final time for the 6,000-meter course was 19:58. Missouri's Karissa Schweizer was a surprise winner in 19:41.
Freshman Kaitlyn Neal was the second Husky finisher today, placing 78th overall to cap a fantastic freshman year in a time of 20:43. Junior Izzi Batt-Doyle moved up to the No. 3 spot in the order for the first time ever, as she was 109th in 20:52. Junior Katie Knight was just a second behind Batt-Doyle in 20:53 for 113th-place. The only senior in the lineup, Kaylee Flanagan, rounded out the Husky scoring with a 150th-place finish in 21:04. Freshman Nikki Zielinski was 162nd overall and sophomore Charlotte Prouse had a rough day, finishing 208th, after placing top-10 in every prior race this season.
For Neale, the top-10 finish was another milestone in what has been a remarkable 2016 comeback year. She missed the 2014 and 2015 cross country seasons due to injury, and only began training last fall. By the end of the 2016 outdoor track season, Neale was all the way back to elite status as she advanced through to the finals in the 1,500-meters, running a PR of 4:13.93 in the semifinals. This fall she built momentum, opening eyes with a fourth-place finish at the Wisconsin Invitational, and then winning Pac-12s and West Regionals back to back, the first Husky ever to do so.
"It was definitely very, very cold, which I think was hard to deal with," said Neale. "I think I stayed around 30th for a while and then slowly moved up to about 20th coming around 4k, and then moving up from there. Definitely felt like it went out a little hotter than some previous races ... but it played out a little bit like the rest of the season as I just tried to run where I felt like I could sustainably run and I didn't want to overexert myself too early. So I wasn't necessarily holding back but I definitely felt like there was a line where I could have easily gone too hard and then died out at the end which I definitely didn't want.
"I'm just really putting it into perspective where I've been and how I've gradually improved over the last year, and I'm honestly so happy to finish cross season healthy, and ready to go take a little bit of a break before we roll into indoor and outdoor," Neale said. "But really happy that I'm safe and healhty and I've gradually improved throughout the season."
Amy-Eloise Neale takes eighth place today for her first cross country All-America honor!! Women finish 12th overall.
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NCAA Cross Country Championships November 19, 2016 Terre Haute, Ind. – LaVern Gibson Championship Course
Women's 6,000-meters Team Results (Top-20 of 31): 1. Oregon 125; 2. Michigan 126; 3. Colorado 134; 4. North Carolina State 223; 5. Stanford 255; 6. San Francisco 307; 7. New Mexico 310; 8. Michigan State 314; 9. Eastern Michigan 316; 10. BYU 328; 11. Notre Dame 338; 12. Washington 352; 13. Providence 399; 14. Wisconsin 451; 15. Mississippi State 459; 16. Missouri 459; 17. Oklahoma State 465; 18. Penn State 465; 19. Arkansas 476; 20. Utah 493. Individual Champion: Karissa Schweizer, Missouri, 19:41. Husky Finishers (Top-40 All-American): 8. Amy-Eloise Neale 19:58; 78. Kaitlyn Neal 20:43; 109. Izzi Batt-Doyle 20:52; 113. Katie Knight 20:53; 150. Kaylee Flanagan 21:04; 162. Nikki Zielinski 21:08; 208. Charlotte Prouse 21:34.
Men's 10,000-meters Individual Champion: Patrick Tiernan, Villanova, 29:22. Husky Finishers (Top-40 All-American): 100. Fred Huxham 30:51.
