Men's Cross Looks To Build On Great Foundation

Friday, September 20

Boston, MA

12:30 PM

University of Washington

Battle In Beantown (Men)

September 18, 2019 | Cross Country

By: UW Athletic Communications

Battle In Beantown
Friday, Sept. 20, 2019
Franklin Park, Jamaica Plain, Mass.

Men's 8,000m - 12:30 pm - Live Results

SEATTLE – The Husky men's cross country squad raised the bar one year ago. The many Huskies back this fall now know what it takes day-in, day-out to finish as a top-10 team on the final day of the season. Washington has begun to work back toward that end goal with three weeks of preseason training under its belt, and now gets set to open its 2019 season this Friday at the Battle In Beantown.

Year one under Head Coach Andy Powell and assistant coach Chris Kwiatkowski was as good of a transition year as any team could hope for, as the 2018 Huskies went from outside the top-20 in preseason rankings up to sixth-place at the NCAA Championships, with second-place Pac-12 and Regional finishes along the way. It was the second-highest finish in school history, and the best in 29 years.

Along with the outstanding results, the important work of building a team culture and chemistry was taken up last year, and the familiarity between the coaching staff and student-athletes has accelerated the team building in year two.

"We just know each other a lot better, that's the biggest thing," says Powell. "Everyone that's here now either Chris spent a lot of time recruiting them, or we got to know them last year on the team, so it speeds up everything when it comes to setting goals and knowing how to do things. We can also go back and look at where someone had success last year or what we need to improve on, which is helpful."

Washington will have to replace some big contributors from the 2018 squad, as All-American Tanner Anderson now has only track eligibility remaining, and top-five NCAA scorers Fred Huxham and Andrew Snyder graduated. But the Huskies reloaded with the No. 1-ranked men's distance recruiting class along with a couple experienced transfers. The new faces, along with continued progression from a large group of returners, should make the Huskies a team to be reckoned with once again.

"We are coming off a good preseason camp, including a week in Leavenworth training hard," Powell says, "and the main objective was to get some good base in, bond and set our goals and come together as a team. We haven't had any hard training yet, Monday after Boston is when we usually start ramping things up. So it should be a good starting point to see where we're at."

For the first two meets, Battle In Beantown and the John Payne/Curtis Invitational at Chambers Bay in the Tacoma area, the Huskies will essentially have split squads. Expected to race in Boston on Friday are Talon Hull, Julius Diehr, Mick Stanovsek, Nick Laccinole, Isaac Mohn, and new transfers Jack Rowe and Andrew Jordan.

The plan for Oct. 5 at Chambers Bay then will be to have the other half of the squad, including Tibebu Proctor and much of the freshman class, toe the line for the first time.

The Battle In Beantown was where the men began their run a year ago with a second-place team finish. They'll be back on the starting line on Friday against a field that includes ranked Arkansas and Syracuse squads. The men's 8k will go off at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time at Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain. It will be the first steps towards Terre Haute on November 23.