Cross Country Impressive In Return In Vegas

Monday, February 1

Las Vegas, NV

TBD

University of Washington

Silver State Collegiate Challenge

February 01, 2021 | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – Yet another pandemic related drought was ended today as the Husky cross country teams were back on the starting line for the first time in 437 days. Washington opened up its season with impressive efforts from both the men's and women's teams at the Silver State Collegiate Invite at Craig Ranch Regional Park in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 18^th-ranked Husky men's team finished third today behind the top-two ranked teams in the NCAA, and Washington beat out No. 4-ranked Notre Dame for third-place. The No. 8 women took fourth behind three ranked teams and showed off their depth, as several of Washington's top women's returners won't debut until the next time out.

Men's Head Coach Andy Powell said today's men's field was perhaps the best invitational field there will be all season. Second-ranked BYU won with 49 points, top-ranked Northern Arizona was second with 54, then the Huskies were third with 75 and Notre Dame was fourth with 80 points. The Huskies also finished ahead of 27^th-ranked Air Force and 24^th-ranked Weber State.

BYU, NAU, and Notre Dame were all able to get some racing in back in the fall of 2020, with Notre Dame winning the ACC Championship, whereas today was Washington's first race since the 2019 NCAA Championships.

"In our first race in a very long time," said Powell, "for them to come out and perform the way they did and be pretty close to the top two teams and beat out Notre Dame, I think it was a really good team effort. We had the best one-to-five spread, with Talon up front but the other five guys all worked really well together. To open up like that was great, which bodes well for hosting the conference in a month's time."

Senior Talon Hull powered to a third-place individual finish in 23:01 for the 8,000-meters. Next up was redshirt freshman Luke Houser, in his official cross country debut, placing 13^th in 23:36. Close behind was Alex Slenning in 15^th in 23:40, then Isaac Green in 19^th in 23:45. Also debuting today was redshirt freshman Joe Waskom in 25^th followed by Tibebu Proctor in 29^th as the No. 6 Husky. Isaac Mohn was 45^th to round out the showing.

The women's team used today's opener as an early test for athletes looking to crack the Husky lineup at championship time. The women were led by junior Haley Herberg and freshman Naomi Smith, who finished fifth and sixth, respectively. It was an outstanding first collegiate race for Smith, the true freshman from Woodway, Wash. and King's High School.

After Herberg (20:01) and Smith (20:04), sophomore Andrea Markezich had a breakthrough run as the No. 3 Husky finisher in 21^st-place in 20:53. Madison Heisterman was the only Husky to pull double duty this week, placing 26^th today after she ran on the women's DMR at the UW Indoor Preview Friday night. Hannah Waskom and Kiera Marshall were fifth and sixth for the Dawgs in 30^th and 32^nd places.

Today's runs were a big step for both UW teams, as the reconfigured season postponed the championships from last fall to March 15, leaving teams trying to strike a balance between qualifying for both indoor track and cross country nationals.

Some of Washington's top distance runners just raced on the track this weekend in the Dempsey, and thus will join the cross country lineup later in the season.

Director of Track and Cross Country Maurica Powell said that the plan for the women was to split things up this week.

"As we are doing a hybrid of indoor and cross on the same weekend we gave some women an opportunity at each sport, then we'll circle back and put together our best team," said Powell. "It was a good chance to look at a few kids trying to make our lineup. Haley and Naomi did a great job, and Andrea Markezich was a nice surprise.

"It gave us a chance to evaluate some people and we'll add some more pieces to the lineup the next time we race."

Racing soon for the women will likely be Allie Schadler, who ran the DMR and the mile at the Dempsey this weekend, posting top-10 NCAA times in both, along with 2019 All-American Mel Smart, and talented transfer Taylor Chiotti.

The men will also have some more options at their disposal the next time they race, as UW also has four sub-four milers in freshmen Leo Daschbach and Cruz Culpepper, and sophomore Sam Tanner and Daniel Maton, that could crack the lineup soon. Culpepper just ran his first sub-four mile on Saturday in the Dempsey, while Tanner is returning to Seattle after winning the New Zealand track title in the outdoor mile, in a blazing time of 3:54.97.