Huskies Open With Controlled Effort At Sundodger

Saturday, September 8

Seattle, WA

11:00 AM

University of Washington

Sundodger Invitational

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

September 08, 2018 | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – The Husky cross country team took its first steps into the 2018 season today at Lincoln Park in West Seattle, hosting the annual Sundodger Invitational. Washington achieved what it set out to achieve in the meet, putting out a controlled effort akin to a workout as the team is less than a week into the start of its training.

There were a number of new faces on the starting line for the Dawgs today, though more are likely to be added to the mix at the upcoming races. Junior transfer Katie Rainsberger led the Husky women's team today while redshirt freshman Sarah Carter and true freshmen Olivia O'Keeffe and Madison Heisterman all suited up as Dawgs for the first time. Redshirt freshman Chase Equall saw his first official cross country action on the men's side.

It was also the first Sundodger at the head of the program for new Director Maurica Powell, and Head Coach Andy Powell.

"They did what we intended for them to do," Maurica Powell said of the Husky women's effort today. "They rain in pairs and ran the paces they were supposed to run. We were trying to just lay down a threshold effort. This week capped off a summer of volume and tempo work. Our really hard training block starts now and we'll start more with specific race preparation."

Rainsberger was 10th today for the women while senior Emily Hamlin was close behind in 12th-place. O'Keeffe and sophomore Allie Schadler were within a second of each other in 21st and 22nd and Carter was 23rd a few seconds later. Junior Nikki Zielinski was 28th today, sophomore Kiera Marshall was 31st and Heisterman finished 42nd.

Sophomore Tibebu Proctor was the top Husky men's finisher, placing eighth overall, one spot ahead of junior Julius Diehr. Sophomore Nick Laccinole was 13th, Equall finished 15th, sophomore Nate Beamer was 18th, and junior Andrew Snyder was 23rd.

Andy Powell said the Huskies were looking for a tempo type run today. "For the most part, the top four guys packed it up and they finished in control," he said. "We checked the box of getting a race in and it was a good effort. We had a group of guys who worked out yesterday and then the group here ran hard today. It's the first time for me really seeing these guys race, so still just getting to know them, but I think it was solid."

With a completely new staff transitioning to Seattle over the summer, the Powells were appreciative for the efforts of assistant coach Christ Kwiatkowski and Director of Operations Stephanie Bohannon for organizing today's meet.

"Chris and Stephanie did a really great job, along with our facilities people, of getting here and setting the whole thing up and making this a smooth operation today," said Andy Powell.

The Huskies will now have a gap to get plenty of training in before they line up again. The men will race next on Sept. 21 in Boston at the Battle in Beantown. The women will travel to the Bay Area for the Stanford Invitational on Sept. 29.