Huskies Test New Digs In First Run Of Fall

Friday, September 2

University Place, Wash.

10:00 AM

University of Washington

UW - Seattle U Open

September 02, 2016 | Cross Country

Mens Results Womens Results

By: UW Athletic Communications

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. – Just a couple days after arriving on campus, the Husky cross country teams stretched out their legs in an intriguing new location, as the UW-Seattle U. Open moved to Chambers Bay Golf Course for the first time after taking place in previous years at Magnuson Park. For the 11th-ranked women and eighth-ranked men's team, it provided a great chance to gauge early returns on summer training.

In case the Dawgs had forgotten about the joys of finicky cross country weather, they got a reminder today, as the women's race was soaked by a rainstorm, but the men got through their run high and dry.

In both races, the Huskies dominated and set a good tone for the upcoming training camp trip to Seabrook, Wash. The women raced for 4,800-meters and Washington had a front pack of seven cross within one second of each other. Katie Knight and Amy-Eloise Neale got credit for a shared victory in 17-minutes, 10-seconds, and crossing right alongside those two were Charlotte Prouse, Anna Maxwell, Izzi Batt-Doyle, Kaylee Flanagan, and Emily Hamlin. Freshman Nikki Zielinski was the first newcomer across the line in 17:23 for eighth-place, with Grace Hodge, Josephine Bosserman, and Kelly Lawson finishing ninth through 11th ahead of the first Seattle finisher.

A photo posted by Coach-Jason Drake (@jzdrake) on Sep 2, 2016 at 1:02pm PDT

The men did one more loop around the course, running 6,400-meters, which Colby Gilbert finished in 20:12. He came through at the front of a pack of seven Dawgs similar to the women. The spread from Gilbert to Andrew Gardner in seventh-place was a single second, and included three true freshmen: Nick Laccinole, David Strome, and Gavin Parpart. Also in that lead group was Johnathan Stevens and Blake Nelson. Keith Williams finished ninth in 20:29 and Mahmoud Moussa was 10th in 20:30 while Julius Diehr finished in 20:32 for 11th-place.

Head Coach Greg Metcalf said Chamber's Bay was a great spot to start the new season. "It was a nice change of scenery for us," said Metcalf. "Both of our teams looked great today. The women's group is as deep a group as we have had in a few years. Great to see Amy-Eloise out there and back at it running her first corss country race in a couple of years. The men looked very solid and along with Colby, Andrew, Blake, and Johnny, our three freshmen Gavin, David and Nick looked very strong today. It was a nice start and we look forward to making more progress over the next couple of months."

After the Dawgs get a couple more weeks of training under their belts, they will be out at Lincoln Park in West Seattle for the annual Sundodger Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 17.