Huskies Go Truly Cross Country For NCAAs

Saturday, November 20

Tallahassee, FL

7:20 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Championships

November 18, 2021 | Cross Country

By: UW Athletic Communications

NCAA Championships
Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021
Tallahassee, Fla. | Apalachee Regional Park

7:20 a.m. PT: Women's 6k
8:10 a.m. PT: Men's 10k

Live Results | Broadcast on ESPNU

SEATTLE – The cross country season reaches the finish line this Saturday morning in Florida, as the Huskies make a literal cross country flight from Seattle to Tallahassee, traveling 2,327 miles to hit the ground running.

Both UW men's and women's teams have made the championship field, the women for the 15th-straight season and the men for the fifth. Champions will be crowned bright and early on Saturday, as the women's race runs at 7:20 a.m. Pacific time and the men's race follows at 8:10 a.m.

ESPNU will be televising the meet live from Apalachee Regional Park.

The NCAA Championships features fields of 31 men's teams and 31 women's teams, plus 38 more individuals on each side. Washington is one of twenty-one programs to have qualified both its men's and women's teams. Head Coaches Maurica and Andy Powell have guided the Husky women and men to nationals in all four of their seasons to this point.

Both Husky teams qualified for the NCAA meet by virtue of runner-up finishes at the West Regionals last weekend. The Dawgs head into the meet ranked 12th on the men's side and 23rd on the women's side based on the most recent USTFCCCA Coaches Poll.

The most recent NCAA Cross Country Championships was just eight months ago in March. At that race in Oklahoma, the women placed 13th, led by an All-America 26th-place finish from Allie Schadler.

Schadler, Naomi Smith (53rd in March), Haley Herberg (55th in March), and Madison Heisterman (151st in March), are all back for another NCAA effort. Sophie Cantine, Anna Gibson, and Sophie O'Sullivan are slated to make their NCAA Husky debuts, however Cantine ran at the 2018 NCAA meet while at Princeton, and placed 117th.

The men ran to a 25th-place finish in March, led by Luke Houser's 51st-place finish. Houser will be back, along with four other returners from the spring race: Isaac Green (104th), Joe Waskom (145th), Leo Daschbach (199th), and Tibebu Proctor, who is racing at the meet for a fifth time.

Leading the Dawgs at the West Regional meet and the Pac-12 Championships, senior transfers Kieran Lumb and Brian Fay will make their NCAA Championship debuts. Lumb won the West Regional title after taking 10th at Pac-12s, while Fay was sixth last week at Regionals and ninth at Pac-12s.