Women Take Second, Men Fifth At Pac-12 Championships

Friday, November 1

Monmouth, OR

11:00 AM

University of Washington

Pac-12 Championships

November 01, 2019 | Cross Country

By: UW Athletic Communications

MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Husky women's cross country team placed second today at the Pac-12 Championships for its best finish since 2016 while the Husky men's squad placed fifth in a tightly bunched top-five at the Ash Creek Preserve in Monmouth, Oregon. The Huskies were led by a trio of top-five finishers, as senior Andrew Jordan was third overall in the men's race while Katie Rainsberger and Mel Smart were fourth and fifth, respectively, for the women.

The women's squad put seven runners in the top-25 and scored just 55 points for its best team point total since last winning the Pac-12 meet in 2009. But second-ranked Stanford posted the best team score since the Huskies' perfect score in 2008, scoring just 27 points to win. The last time the Huskies had seven in the top-25 was also in 2009, when the conference had just ten teams.

Behind the Cardinal and Huskies, 16th-ranked Utah was third with 86 points, fifth-ranked Colorado was fourth with 89 points, and 20th-ranked Oregon was fifth with 115 points.

"The women were great today," said Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Maurica Powell. "In terms of outcome, we were looking to be top-two as a team, and to do it we needed to put two in the top-10 and all five scorers in the top-20 and we did that. We wanted a 30 second spread one-to-five and we were better than that. I was also pleased that we only had 46 seconds through seven scorers, and had all seven in the top-25, which is good depth. Overall, really pleased with their toughness and grit in the sixth week of their hard six week training block. I think they can even be better over the next three weeks as we lighten up and focus on the NCAA meet.

Rainsberger and Smart ran at the front of the pack throughout the 6,000-meter course, although the Huskies were just sixth through the first split as their three-through-seven runners were conservative early. But between the second and third splits, from 2.3K to 3.8K, the Huskies went from 94 points to 67 points and got up to second-place as Shona McCulloch, Allie Schadler, Camila David-Smith, and Lilli Burdon all moved up by more than 10 spots.

Stanford senior Fiona O'Keeffe got the win in 19-minutes, 32-seconds, with Rainsberger taking fourth in 19:41 and Smart fifth in 19:44. That will earn Rainsberger a third career All-Pac-12 First Team honor and a first for Smart.

McCulloch was 12th today in an even 20-minutes, a huge improvement from a year ago when she was 40th. Schadler was a career-best 15th in 20:06, up from 23rd last year, and David-Smith capped the scoring in 19th-place in 20:11. Her last Pac-12 race was 2017 when she was 65th.

Burdon came through in 21st-place in 20:21, and then sophomore transfer Haley Herberg made her Husky debut today and finished 25th in a time of 20:28. Junior Hannah Waskom also would have scored for nine of the Pac-12 teams today as she was 32nd in 20:37, and senior Kaitlyn Neal was 37th in 20:45. Junior Kiera Marshall placed 54th in 21:04 to round out the lineup.

"Haley Herberg opened up today and will keep getting better for us. Katie looked the best she's looked all year and is training at a real high level right now. Mel held her own with a foursome of seasoned veterans up front and was awesome in her first conference championship. Really, really excited for this group as we move into the best part of the season."

The seventh-ranked Husky men's team had several career-best performances today but could not quite sustain a strong early effort in the windy conditions. That did not apply to Jordan, however, as the Iowa State transfer put together his second-straight outstanding effort.

Jordan was never out of the top-10 and would be one of three runners truly in contention over the final hundred meters. Ultimately Colorado's Joe Klecker hung on after taking the lead at the halfway point, crossing in 23:02 for the 8,000-meters. Oregon's Cooper Teare was second in 23:05 and Jordan was a half-second behind in 23:06 for third. Jordan becomes just the third Husky man to go top-three at the Pac-12 Championships, and the second in as many years, as Talon Hull was second-place last season.

A big group of five Huskies then came across within 13 seconds of each other starting with junior Tibebu Proctor in 18th-place in 23:33. Jack Rowe was right next to Proctor in 19th. Sophomore Isaac Green turned in the best race of his career, scoring for UW for the first time ever in 23rd-place in 23:40. Freshman Sam Tanner then capped the scoring in 24th-place in his first conference championship with a time of 23:45. Talon Hull was 27th in 23:46 and Julius Diehr rounded out the top-seven in 33rd in 24:02.

Sophomore Alex Slenning was 45th today in 24:13, Isaac Mohn was 61st in 24:57 and Gavin Parpart was 67th in 25:40.

Third-ranked Colorado got the win today with 41 points while 16th-ranked Oregon jumped up to take second with 57 points. Stanford, also ranked third nationally along with Colorado, was third with 69 points. 10th-ranked UCLA just edged the Huskies with 84 points as UW scored 87. Then it was a huge gap back to Washington State in sixth with 204 points.

Head Coach Andy Powell was impressed with Jordan and the first-timers Green and Tanner but says the team needs to continue getting better heading to the Regional meet.

"The team is better than what they ran today so we are not happy with the performance, although we did some good things," Powell said. "We closed the gap between one and five so that's getting better. The top five teams in the conference are all really good, we just unfortunately were on the back side of it today. We could have been a few places higher, but we have to improve at Regionals."

The second leg of the postseason, the West Regional Championships, are now two weeks away. The Huskies will head to Colfax, Wash. on Nov. 15 to look to secure their tickets to NCAAs which are now 22 days away on Nov. 23 in Terre Haute.

Washington Cross Country
Pac-12 Championships
November 1, 2019
Monmouth, Ore. | Ash Creek Preserve

Men's 8,000-meters
Team Standings: 1. Colorado 41; 2. Oregon 57; 3. Stanford 69; 4. UCLA 84; 5. Washington 87; 6. Washington State 204; 7. California 233; 8. Arizona 240; 9. Arizona State 242.
Individual Champion: Joe Klecker, Colorado, 23:02.
Husky Competitors: 3. Andrew Jordan 23:06; 18. Tibebu Proctor 23:33; 19. Jack Rowe 23:33; 23. Isaac Green 23:40; 24. Sam Tanner 23:45; 27. Talon Hull 23:46; 33. Julius Diehr 24:02; 45. Alex Slenning 24:13; 61. Isaac Mohn 24:57; 67. Gavin Parpart 25:40.

Women's 6,000-meters
Team Standings: 1. Stanford 27; 2. Washington 55; 3. Utah 86; 4. Colorado 89; 5. Oregon 115; 6. Arizona 191; 7. Oregon State 197; 8. UCLA 217; 9. California 241; 10. Washington State 250; 11. Arizona State 318; 12. USC 400.
Individual Champion: Fiona O'Keeffe, Stanford, 19:32.
Husky Competitors: 4. Katie Rainsberger 19:41; 5. Mel Smart 19:44; 12. Shona McCulloch 20:00; 15. Allie Schadler 20:06; 19. Camila David-Smith 20:11; 21. Lilli Burdon 20:21; 25. Haley Herberg 20:28; 32. Hannah Waskom 20:37; 37. Kaitlyn Neal 20:45; 54. Kiera Marshall 21:04.