SPRINGFIELD, Ore. – A couple down-to-the-wire finishes at the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships each featured Huskies reaching down deep in an attempt to make history at the Springfield Golf Club. One was expected, as senior and defending champion Amy-Eloise Neale once again found herself in a thriller, but in the men's race, junior Mahmoud Moussa was a surprise leader coming into the final turn. Neale was edged by just one second and took third, while Moussa placed fifth in the best performance of his career.
The great performances from Neale and Moussa led the 13th-ranked Husky women's team to a fourth-place finish, while the 21st-ranked Husky men finished a strong fifth. Third-ranked Colorado won the women's team title with 53 points, with top-ranked Oregon winning a tiebreaker for second with 71 and No. 14 Stanford also scoring 71 for third. The Huskies were fourth with 128 points, ahead of No. 28 Cal with 132 and No. 27 Utah with 146.
In the men's team standings, No. 6 Stanford snapped No. 5 Colorado's six-year winning streak, as the Cardinal scored 41 points to win and Colorado had 47 for second. No. 14 UCLA was third with 103 points and No. 8 Oregon was fourth with 109, just five points ahead of the Huskies who scored 114 points for fifth, beating out 20th-ranked Washington State which was sixth with 138.
Neale was attempting to become the first Husky to repeat as Pac-12 Champion in history, but after winning last year by just four-tenths of a second, she was edged by Colorado's national champion Dani Jones who won in 18:57.3 for 6,000-meters. Oregon's Katie Rainsberger crossed a split second ahead of Neale in 18:58.5, as Neale was third in 18:58.7. The three runners separated themselves from an elite field with about 800-meters to go, with Neale and Jones going back and forth for the lead until Jones had one last push with about 20 meters left.
"Amy-Eloise Neale is really good," said an impressed Head Coach Greg Metcalf. "She runs better the more it matters, she rises to the occasion, and she did it again. She maybe could have kicked a little sooner, but that top-five are five of the best women's distance runners in the country, it's just loaded. Amy looked confident and poised, that was easily the best she's run this year so she's even more excited about what is to come."
Following Neale was sophomore Kaitlyn Neal and senior Izzi Batt-Doyle in 26th and 27th-places, respectively, Neal crossing in 19:34 and Batt-Doyle in 19:38. Junior Emily Hamlin had her best Pac-12 finish today taking 36th overall in 20:03, and senior Anna Maxwell capped the scoring with a 38th-place finish in 20:04. Amy-Eloise Neale (3rd) and Dani Jones (1st) congraulate each other after a classic fight to the finish.
Sophomore Nikki Zielinski improved eight spots on her freshman finish, taking 42nd in 20:07, and freshman Kiera Marshall ran in the Husky top-seven for the first time today as she was 44th in 20:08. Also running at their first conference meets were Allie Schadler, 50th in 20:14, Camila David-Smith, 65th in 20:40, and Eric Schroeder, 72nd overall in 20:53.
Metcalf said it was a solid effort for the women, but "I think there's more in there," he said. "We stayed the course, and we have to aim to be better. If we get to Louisville rested and full of run, I think this group is capable of being a top-10 team and that's the goal."
Moussa finished the 8,000-meters in 23:52, less than one second out of third-place, but far and away his best conference run. Moussa was 47th at Pac-12s in 2015 and last year was 61st overall. His junior season started with two strong races, as he was fourth at the Sundodger Invite and then 15th overall and third on the squad at the Bill Dellinger Invite in Springfield one month ago, but Moussa had struggled in his last race at the Wisconsin Invitational, placing 176th overall.
That rough outing was wiped away today, as Moussa put himself near the front early in the race and never showed any signs of wavering. His fifth-place finish is the second-highest finish for a Husky man since 2006, trailing only the third-place finish two years ago by Izaic Yorks.
"With a thousand meters to go I just said 'Gosh, dang it, Mahmoud is in the lead!' said Metcalf. "It was fantastic. He ran with tremendous confidence, his goals were to run a race with a chance to finish in the top-10 so that's a massive jolt of confidence for him. I'm incredibly proud of his effort."
Moussa will earn All-Pac-12 First Team honors for the run, and joining him on the All-Pac-12 Team for the first time will be senior Andrew Gardner, who also turned in a great performance as he crossed in 11th-place in 24:04. Gardner led the Huskies at Pac-12s a year ago in 18th, and improved on that effort today.
"Andrew has simplified the process, he engaged, stuck his nose in it, and ran tough," Metcalf said. "I think he gets better when we go to 10k. It's exciting to watch a senior like him rally at the end and go run great. He's a great leader for our group right now."
Crossing third for the men today was senior Colby Gilbert, taking 27th overall in 24:26, just ahead of freshman Talon Hull who was 29th in 24:28, a great conference debut. Sophomore Andy Snyder ran in the top-five for the second race in a row, as his 47th-place finish finished UW's scoring five. Snyder improved 18 spots on his Pac-12 run from a year ago. Just three seconds behind Snyder was Gavin Parpart, 50th in 24:49, and senior Johnathan Stevens was 55th in 24:58 to round out the top-seven.
Freshman Tibebu Proctor was 58th in 25:09 in his first conference experience, while sophomore Charlie Barringer finished 65th and redshirt freshman Nate Beamer was 67th in 25:31.
"We were close," said Metcalf on the men's team as a whole. "Five points behind Oregon for fourth, we're 11 points behind UCLA, and it's in there. Talon that was his first race back from an ankle injury, Andy Snyder was a little under the weather, Colby can be a little better. But we get to come back to the cozy confines of the Jefferson Park Golf Course and hopefully be that much better."
Two weeks from now UW will look to secure its spots in the NCAA Championships when it hosts the 2017 NCAA West Regional Championship out at Jefferson Park Golf Course. That race is set for Friday, Nov. 10, starting at 10:30 a.m.
