Huskies Prepared For NCAA Championships

Saturday, November 17

Madison, WI

8:45 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Championships

November 15, 2018 | Cross Country

Meet Notes

By: UW Athletic Communications

NCAA Cross Country Championships
Madison, Wisc. | Thomas Zimmer Championships Course
Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018

Live Results | Flotrack Live Stream ($)

Women's 6k - 8:45 am PT
Men's 10k - 9:45 am PT

SEATTLE - Opportunity presents itself on Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, as the Husky men's and women's cross country teams line up along with thirty other squads for the National Championships. It's all about who's the best on November 17, as the Dawgs will aim to punctuate successful seasons with their best races yet.

The championships will be held at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course, hosted by the University of Wisconsin. Flotrack.org will be live streaming the races for a subscription fee. The women's 6,000-meters will be first at 8:45 a.m. Pacific time while the men's 10k starts an hour later at 9:45 a.m. Pacific.

The Husky men head into the final meet ranked No. 6 nationally, their highest ranking in the history of the poll. The women also go into NCAAs with a season-high ranking of No. 14. The only time both Husky teams finished in the top-10 at nationals in the same season was 2015, when the men placed eighth and the women were tenth.

This is the fourth NCAA trip in the last five seasons for the Husky men and their 15th overall. The women have the fourth-longest consecutive NCAA qualifying streak in the country as they are making their 12th-straight appearance, and their 20th in the past 22 years. It's the 25th all-time appearance for the women.

The men have put together a great season leading up to NCAAs thanks to a pack mentality. Three different runners have led the squad this season, senior Tanner Anderson (Battle In Beantown and Regionals), Tibebu Proctor (Pre-Nationals, at the same course that hosts NCAAs), and Talon Hull (Pac-12 Championships, where he was the runner-up), but the end result in the team standings have been second-place finishes every time out. Washington's second-place finish at Pac-12s was its best in 24 years, and UW auto-advanced out of Regionals taking a close second behind fourth-ranked Portland.

The depth of the Dawgs has helped as much as interchangeable number ones. Senior Fred Huxham was top-20 at Pac-12s and Regionals, junior Andrew Snyder was 17th at Pac-12s and 30th at Regionals, and sophomore Gavin Parpart, junior Julius Diehr and junior Mick Stanovsek have all enjoyed their best fall seasons as well. The Huskies had a 34 second spread from their one through eight runners at Pac-12s.

First year Head Coach of the men's team, Andy Powell, said, "I'm really happy with everything they've done so far, it's been a great experience, and they seem to have gotten better each day.I think they'll approach it exactly the same as they have every other meet. If they do that, they'll be successful."

Last season at NCAAs, the men placed 22nd. Snyder was 118th, Hull was 144th, and Proctor was 172nd, while Anderson was 41st last season racing for Oregon. Huxham will be running NCAAs for the fourth time after redshirting last year. He was exactly 100th in both 2015 and 2016.

Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Maurica Powell considered last week's fourth-place Regional run the best of the season to that point, and is looking for the Huskies to improve once more.

"They have gotten better every week, and we just need to continue that trend, try to run together, and take advantage of this opportunity to try and be better than we were last week," Powell says. "That's all I'm asking of them. We were 21st last year, so try to be better than we were last week and last year."

The women have rebuilt after losing three seniors from last year's 21st-place NCAA squad and made it back to NCAAs despite missing one of their top runners, Kaitlyn Neal, during the second half of the season. Junior transfer Katie Rainsberger has been the top Dawg in every race this season, she will be shooting for a third career All-America honor on Saturday after placing fourth and 16th in the past two years at NCAAs for Oregon.

After Rainsberger, a young women's roster has shown major progress both from 2017 to 2018, and also throughout the fall. Sophomore Allie Schadler was in the top-25 at Pac-12s and Regionals and will look for a big improvement from her NCAA debut last year, when she was 209th. Senior Emily Hamlin has also had her best cross country season and looks to improve on her best NCAA finish, which was 155th last year. All-American Lilli Burdon, another transfer from the Ducks, has helped offset the loss of Neal as she started her season at the Pac-12 Championships and showed progress with a 33rd-place Regional finish.

Three Huskies will make their NCAA debuts on the women's side: redshirt freshmen Shona McCulloch, and true freshmen Olivia O'Keeffe and Kelly Makin. O'Keeffe was the No. 5 Husky at Pre-Nationals and Pac-12s, while McCulloch broke into the top-five for the first time, all the way up to No. 3, at West Regionals where she was 28th in her best run as a Dawg.