UW Men And Women Both Post Top-20 NCAA Finishes

Saturday, November 23

Terre Haute, IN

8:15 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Championships

Katie Rainsberger and Mel Smart 2019 NCAA

November 23, 2019 | Cross Country

NCAA Women's Results NCAA Men's Results

By: UW Athletic Communications

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – For just the sixth time in school history, and the second year in a row, both Husky cross country teams placed in the Top-20 today at the NCAA Cross Country Championships at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute. The Husky women's team finished 11th today, led by a 12th-place run from freshman Mel Smart who was the top freshman finisher in the NCAA, while the men's team placed 19th even without its top two competitors.

Smart and senior Katie Rainsberger both earned All-America honors, the first for Smart and the fourth for Rainsberger, who finished 33rd-place today. Smart covered the 6,000-meters in 20:24 for 12th and Rainsberger finished in 20:41.

The Huskies scored 296 points for their fourth top-20 finish in the past five years, but as a whole, Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Maurica Powell was not satisfied in the day's outcome.

"Disappointing finish for the women," Powell said. "They came off regionals really well and had good momentum and a stretch of three races where they executed well and ran confidently and with intention and my observation today is that they were very passive, and as a result they were too far back early in the race, they sort of panicked and didn't move well when they needed to."

The three, four, and five Husky scorers all came through within a second of each other, but it was a one-five spread of nearly a minute compared to the 19-second gap the Huskies had at Regionals last week.

Sophomore Shona McCulloch placed 115th, sophomore Haley Herberg was 116th as she ran in the Husky top-five for the first time, and senior Lilli Burdon was 118th overall. Sophomore Camila David-Smith came in 164th and junior Allie Schadler had a tough finish, placing 242nd.

"Mel was awesome, but we made a lot of mistakes and from a process perspective we didn't manage attitude or effort well today, which are things we really try to control all the time," said Powell. "Young people make mistakes a lot and we're dealing with young people and we just need to move forward from it and learn to keep doing better at controlling what we can control. It's a missed opportunity for sure but we'll bounce back."

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Going into the race, the men knew they'd be without some major firepower as Head Coach Andy Powell made the decision to hold out junior Talon Hull for a second-straight race, and West Region champ Andrew Jordan also was sidelined with an eye toward their health moving forward into track.

"Andrew and Talon were cleared by the doctor to compete but I think with the conditions and looking out for what was best for their long-term health, we decided to sit them out," Andy Powell said. "It was a really difficult decision but it was the right decision when it's in the student-athlete's best interest. So that changed our strategy a bit where you go from a team trying to be in the top-10 or maybe get a trophy, to trying to be somewhere in the top-20. So our strategy was to have a really tight pack, one through five, and make sure that they move up throughout the race.

The men executed that plan very well, as UW had a one-through-five time separation of just 24 seconds that was second-best in the field. The Huskies were 28th at the first split at 3,000-meters but at the 5k split they had moved up 10 spots up to 18th-place. From there they moved up and down a few places over the second half but held on for 19th in the end.

Senior Jack Rowe led the Dawgs today in 88th-place overall in a time of 31:54. Sophomore Alex Slenning crossed in an even 32-minutes in 104, less than a second ahead of junior Tibebu Proctor who was 106th. Sophomore Isaac Green was 117th today in 32:06, and senior Julius Diehr was 144th to cap the scoring in a time of 32:18. Freshman Sam Tanner was the final Husky across in 233rd.

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Given the challenge of running without Jordan or Hull, Coach Powell said that "I think a lot of teams would have folded, but I think they saw it as an opportunity and took advantage of it, and I feel like they did the best they possibly could on the day. I was really proud of all those guys, how they stuck together, and how they closed and moved up."

Proctor was the only Husky on the starting line today who also ran at last season's NCAA Championship meet when the Huskies took sixth. Slenning, Green, Diehr, and Tanner all raced their first NCAAs while Rowe ran as an individual a year ago for USF. The experienced gained by Slenning, Green, and Tanner, added to the returners and the freshmen that UW redshirted this fall had Powell optimistic.

"I'm happy we were able to redshirt a lot of our freshmen this fall, and we have Tibs and Talon coming back with some young guys getting more experience today."

Washington Cross Country
NCAA Championships
November 23, 2019
Terre Haute, Ind. | LaVern Gibson Championship Course

Women's 6,000-meters
Team Standings (Top-20 of 31): 1. Arkansas 96; 2. BYU 102; 3. Stanford 123; 4. New Mexico 168; 5. North Carolina State 190; 6. Michigan State 209; 7. Wisconsin 235; 8. Air Force 259; 9. Furman 290; 10. Colorado 294; 11. Washington 296; 12. Florida State 308; 13. Michigan 395; 14. Northern Arizona 406; 15. Notre Dame 415; 16. Utah 471; 17. Boise State 474; 18. Penn State 482; 19. Indiana 509; 20. Boston College 514.
Individual Champion: Weini Kelati, New Mexico, 19:47.
Husky Competitors: 12. Mel Smart 20:24; 33. Katie Rainsberger 20:41; 115. Shona McCulloch 21:20; 116. Haley Herberg 21:20; 118. Lilli Burdon 21:21; 164. Camila David-Smith 21:45; 242. Allie Schadler 22:49.

Men's 10,000-meters
Team Standings (Top-20 of 28): 1. BYU 109; 2. Northern Arizona 163; 3. Colorado 164; 4. Iowa State 211; 5. Tulsa 243; 6. Stanford 248; 7. Michigan 250; 8. Notre Dame 269; 9. Oregon 307; 10. Portland 314; 11. Purdue 338; 12. Iona 348; 13. Indiana 367; 14. Furman 379; 15. Harvard 384; 16. Utah State 428; 17. Virginia Tech 451; 18. Wisconsin 462; 19. Washington 466; 20. Virginia 468.
Individual Champion: Edwin Kurgat, Iowa State, 30:32.
Husky Competitors: 88. Jack Rowe 31:54; 104. Alex Slenning 32:00; 106. Tibebu Proctor 32:00; 117. Isaac Green 32:06; 144. Julius Diehr 32:18; 233. Sam Tanner 34:11.