Both Husky Squads Gear Up For Nationals

Saturday, November 23

Terre Haute, IN

8:15 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Championships

November 21, 2019 | Cross Country

Meet Notes Championships Central

By: UW Athletic Communications

NCAA Cross Country Championships
November 23 | Terre Haute, Ind.
LaVern Gibson Championship Course

Flotrack Live Stream ($) | Live Results

8:15 a.m. (PT): Women's 6k
9:15 a.m. (PT): Men's 10k

SEATTLE - The NCAA Championships are back in Terre Haute and Washington returns both its men's and women's teams for the season-ending throwdown this Saturday, Nov. 23. Thirty-one men's teams and thirty-one women's teams will be off at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course and the best on that day will crowned.

The women's 6,000-meters will be first up at 8:15 a.m. Pacific time and the men's 10,000-meters follows at 9:15 a.m. Pacific. A live webcast of the meet will be streamed on Flotrack.org for a subscription fee.

This is the 26th NCAA appearance for the No. 4-ranked Husky women's squad and the 17th appearance for the 11th-ranked men. It is the ninth time that both Husky teams have qualified in the same season, including both years under coaches Maurica and Andy Powell.

Ready to run for the women's team is a group with solid NCAA Championship experience that has been improving throughout the fall and looks to take one more step on Saturday. Senior All-Americans Katie Rainsberger and Lilli Burdon lead the way, Rainsberger looking for a fourth career All-America honor and Burdon a third. Junior Allie Schadler makes her third NCAA appearance, while it's the second for sophomores Shona McCulloch and Haley Herberg. Sophomore Camila David-Smith and freshman Mel Smart make their NCAA Championship debuts, and junior Hannah Waskom will be the alternate for the Dawgs.

The women are coming off runner-up finishes at both the Pac-12 Championships and the West Regional Championships, taking second to current No. 2-ranked Stanford. At Regionals, the Huskies had six women in the top-20, all earning All-West Region honors, and a gap of just 19 seconds between their one and five scorers.

This will be the third run for the women this season at the LaVern Gibson course, as they opened up in Terre Haute with a third-place finish at the John McNichols Invite and then got a victory at the Pre-National Invite in October. The women have been led all season by the tandem of Smart and Rainsberger. Smart has been in the top-10 of every race she's run this year, and Rainsberger has been top-10 in all but one race, and she led UW in sixth-place at Pre-Nats.

McCulloch, Schadler, Burdon, and David-Smith have never been far behind, while Herberg joined the pack starting with the Pac-12 meet, giving UW perhaps the deepest one-through-seven lineup in the country.

The women will be looking to improve on last season's ninth-place finish, which is the highest the Huskies have placed at Nationals since the 2011 squad was the runner-up.

The men are expected to run a lineup of seniors Julius Diehr, Andrew Jordan and Jack Rowe, junior Tibebu Proctor, sophomores Isaac Green and Alex Slenning, and freshman Sam Tanner. Proctor is the only Husky who raced at NCAAs last season, as a Husky, that is. Jordan and Rowe both ran at Nationals last year for Iowa State and San Francisco, respectively. The two transfers helped the Huskies get back to nationals despite graduating three of their five scorers from the 2018 squad that finished sixth-place for the best men's finish in 29 years.

Jordan won the West Region title last week in Colfax, Wash. becoming the first Husky male ever to win that title and Rowe had his second-straight top-20 finish as he was 16th, after placing 19th at Pac-12s. Jordan also led the Dawgs with a third-place Pac-12 run and he was seventh at Pre-Nationals as UW was fourth that day in Terre Haute.

Proctor has been right on the verge of a great finish and will look to close the season with his best race as he did a year ago when he earned All-America honors in 38th. Julius Diehr is set for his first NCAA XC run as a senior after he was the alternate on last year's squad. He finished top-40 at both Pac-12s and Regionals. Green made his first appearance in the UW top-five at Pac-12s when he impressed with a 23rd-place finish. Slenning was the No. 4 Husky at Regionals in 33rd and gets to make his NCAA debut, as will the one true freshman in the group, Sam Tanner from New Zealand. Tanner made his UW debut at the Pre-National meet, taking third in the open race, and then scored for UW at Pac-12s in 24th-place.