Huskies Get Job Done At West Regionals

Friday, November 9

Sacramento, CA

11:00 AM

University of Washington

NCAA West Regionals

November 09, 2018 | Cross Country

Complete Regional Results

By: UW Athletic Communications

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Both Washington cross country squads did what they needed to do today at West Regionals to earn a spot on the starting line for next week's NCAA Championships. The seventh-ranked men's team took second today to automatically move on to nationals while the women finished fourth, and fully expect to be one of the at-large teams selected when the field for nationals is made official.

Only the top-two teams from each of the nine regional races held around the country today qualify for NCAAs automatically. To complete the fields of 31 teams, thirteen more squads are chosen "at-large" based on head-to-head wins accumulated throughout the season plus their Regional finish. The 17th-ranked Husky women were an unofficial at-large selection according to Flotrack.org and other sources that were crunching the numbers.

The NCAA will announce the field on Saturday at 2 p.m. Pacific time with a selection show on NCAA.com

Six Huskies earned NCAA All-West Region honors for top-25 individual finishes today. The women put two in the top-25, Katie Rainsberger leading the Huskies in ninth, and Allie Schadler finishing 21st, and improvement of 45 spots from where she finished a year ago.

The men had four in the top-25 today, as Tanner Anderson closed extremely well, climbing 12 places over the last kilometer, to finish fourth overall. Sophomore Talon Hull, the Pac-12 runner-up, took 12th, senior Fred Huxham was 17th, and sophomore Tibebu Proctor was 24th.

If chosen it would be the 12th consecutive year of qualifying for the NCAA Championships for the UW women and the 20th in the past 22 seasons. The men will be making a second-straight trip, and their fourth in the past five years.

The women were eyeing the top-five in order to advance. Oregon, ranked second nationally, got the win over third-ranked Boise State, with No. 6 Stanford in third. The Huskies were fourth, comfortably ahead of 19th-ranked Portland in fifth.

After Rainsberger and Schadler, the Dawgs got a great run from redshirt freshman Shona McCulloch, who was their No. 3 today in 28th-place. Lilli Burdon and Emily Hamlin then capped the scoring as Burdon was 33rd and Hamlin 34th.

Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Maurica Powell said top-five was the goal and the Huskies ran their best race of the season in order to do that today. "I think it was definitely their best race so far in terms executing really well," Powell said. "They were really business-like and exactly where they needed to be throughout the race. We wanted to get five in the top-35 and were able to do that.

"Katie ran great up front and then Allie, Shona, Emily and Lilli ran together the whole way. The biggest surprise was Shona, just a huge improvement and the best race she's run in a Husky uniform from her. She is starting to show some of her high school form and came up big for us today."

Fourth-ranked Portland just edged out the Huskies for the men's title by five points, with 77 compared to the 82 points the Huskies finished with. Ninth-ranked Boise State was third with 102 and Pac-12 Champion Stanford, ranked fifth, placed fourth today with 110 points, showing just how tough the West Region is this year. 11th-ranked Oregon was fifth with 149.

Head Coach Andy Powell said it was seven guys turning in seven good races today, as the distance moved up to 10,000-meters for the first time.

"It was a great team effort, and this is what they've been preparing for all year is to run two 10Ks in eight days," Powell said. "They knocked one off today and looked controlled running through the finish line and were able to recover pretty quickly. They ran aggressively and confidently up front and I think our group moved up as well or better than anyone over the final kilometer. Now we'll get that second 10k in eight days."

Portland led throughout, with the Huskies getting out well in second at the first split. Stanford moved into second halfway through, but then with just under a mile to go at the last split it was Boise State that had jumped into second-place. But the Huskies countered back and turned a 14 point deficit into a 20 point cushion over the Broncos by the finish.

After Proctor, Andrew Snyder closed the Husky scoring in 30th-place, with Gavin Parpart right behind in 34th and Mahmoud Moussa completing the top-seven in 58th.

The NCAA Cross Country Championships will be hosted by Wisconsin in Madison at the Zimmer Championship Course next Saturday, Nov. 17.

Washington Cross Country
NCAA West Regional Championships
November 9, 2018
Sacramento, Calif. | Haggin Oaks Golf Complex

Women's 6,000m
Team Standings (Top-20 of 36): 1. Oregon 44; 2. Boise State 49; 3. Stanford 95; 4. Washington 118; 5. Portland 144; 6. Oregon State 196; 7. UCLA 215; 8. Cal Poly 232; 9. San Jose State 273; 10. San Francisco 276; 11. Cal State Fullerton 316; 12. Washington State 325; 13. California 333; 14. Idaho 407; 15. Portland State 410; 16. Arizona State 434; 17. Loyola Marymount 520; 18. UC Santa Barbara 529; 19. UC Davis 552; 20. Sacramento State 593.
Individual Champion: Allie Ostrander, Boise State, 19:09.
Husky Competitors: 9. Katie Rainsberger 19:40; 21. Allie Schadler 20:13; 28. Shona McCulloch 20:29; 33. Lilli Burdon 20:37; 34. Emily Hamlin 20:39; 74. Olivia O'Keeffe 21:19; 86. Sarah Carter 21:26.

Men's 10,000m
Team Standings (Top-20 of 29): 1. Portland 77; 2. Washington 82; 3. Boise State 102; 4. Stanford 110; 5. Oregon 149; 6. UCLA 150; 7. Washington State 218; 8. California 225; 9. Gonzaga 229; 10. Cal Poly 284; 11. San Francisco 296; 12. San Jose State 325; 13. Loyola Marymount 404; 14. Arizona State 405; 15. Pepperdine 418; 16. UC Santa Barbara 459; 17. Idaho 515; 18. Santa Clara 533; 19. St. Mary's 563; 20. Cal State Fullerton 601.
Individual Champion: Nick Hauger, Portland, 29:42.
Husky Competitors: 4. Tanner Anderson 29:44; 12. Talon Hull 29:49; 17. Fred Huxham 29:52; 24. Tibebu Proctor 30:00; 30. Andrew Snyder 30:09; 34. Gavin Parpart 30:10; 58. Mahmoud Moussa 30:44.