Huskies Go Top-20, Fay Finishes Highest In Decades

Saturday, November 19

Stillwater, OK

7:20 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Championships

November 19, 2022 | Cross Country

Complete Results Photo Gallery

By: UW Athletic Communications

STILLWATER, Okla. – Both Washington men's and women's cross country squads earned top-20 finishes today at the NCAA Cross Country Championships at the OSU Cross Country Course. The women's team ran its way to 17th-place this morning, while the men finished 14th, led by one of the best individual runs in school history from senior Brian Fay.

Fay, the Dublin, Ireland native, backed up his West Regional title with a 13th-place finish today to earn his second-straight cross country All-America honor. Fay was 38th one year ago. His finish today was the second-highest ever by a Husky on the men's side, behind only Simon Baines' 10th-place finish from 1993. He also becomes just the second Husky man to become a two-time cross country All-American, joining Aaron Nelson (2013-14).

Brian Fay powers to the finish in 1?3?th-place! That's the second-best finish by a Husky man EVER at NCAAs and the best since 1993!#GoHuskies x #NCAAXC pic.twitter.com/tgEwECWrt1
— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) November 19, 2022

The women's team was led by career-best finishes from Anna Gibson in 63rd and Sophie O'Sullivan in 73rd. The Huskies had to do battle without Haley Herberg, who was held out to help her recover from an injury. Herberg missed the first two meets of the year before running at Pac-12s, but Director Maurica Powell made the choice to safeguard Herberg for the track season.

"Anna had her best cross country race, Sophie was great, so good momentum for those two going to track," said Maurica Powell. "But after that we didn't run our best. We did not run Haley Herberg because she's almost healthy but not quite there, so we took a long-term approach. To do something special today we needed to have seven out of seven great races and we only had two out of seven. I'm disappointed not to have our best day at the biggest race."

Gibson led the Huskies in a time of 20:22 over the hilly, challenging 6,000-meter course. O'Sullivan was next in 20:26. Those two made massive improvements from the NCAA meet just one year ago, when Gibson finished 191st and O'Sullivan was 244th.

Andrea Markezich also had a career-best NCAA finish in 134th-place in 20:49. Madison Heisterman was fourth for UW in 147th in 20:53, and Naomi Smith capped the scoring in 158th with 20:58. Freshmen Sophia Nordenholz and Ella Borsheim were 170th and 174th, respectively. The Dawgs scored 470 points for 17th overall.

Where's Washington ... there, there, and there!

?? ESPNU#GoHuskies x #NCAAXC pic.twitter.com/47O0Oo4jwq
— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) November 19, 2022

The men's team came in ranked seventeenth and outperformed that ranking by three spots, finishing 14th with Fay's All-America honor and a career-best run from Luke Houser. Fay covered the 10,000-meters in 29:11, running nearly the full race in a chase pack of about a dozen men that was behind a group of three up front.

Houser moved up throughout the race and finished 42nd overall in 29:37, just missing the top-40 All-American cutoff by two places, and about two seconds. Fay and Houser were the No. 3 and No. 6 finishers out of all Pac-12 runners today.

Isaac Green equaled his best NCAA Cross Country finish in 104th-place in 30:13. Joe Waskom finished in 30:44 for 164th overall, then Ed Trippas was fifth in 168th in 30:46, Sam Affolder was 171st in 30:46, and Leo Daschbach was 211th in 31:11.

The men scored 422 points for 14th-place, the fourth time in the past five seasons that they've finished in the top-20.

"We had a great individual performance from Brian today," said Head Coach Andy Powell. "He's a great leader and we'll miss him in cross. Our top three ran well; four, five and six did the best they could today and fought. It was an impressive NCAA that went a lot faster than two years ago. The guys were consistent throughout the fall. Our goal was to be top-10, we fell a little short of that, but I'm super proud of how the guys competed."

Washington Cross Country
2022 NCAA Championships
Nov. 19, 2022
Stillwater, Okla. | Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course

Women's 6,000-meters
Team Results: North Carolina State 114; 2. New Mexico 140; 3. Alabama 166; 4. Oklahoma State 201; 5. North Carolina 242; 6. Northern Arizona 257; 7. Notre Dame 261; 8. BYU 263; 9. Virginia 268; 10. Georgetown 271; 11. Colorado 286; 12. Utah 307; 13. Stanford 371; 14. Oregon 390; 15. Ohio State 467; 16. Providence 468; 17. Washington 470; 18. Florida State 471; 19. Wisconsin 494; 20. Michigan State 497; 21. Arkansas 507; 22. Michigan 534; 23. Syracuse 544; 24. Oregon State 544; 25. Colorado State 548; 26. Utah Valley 548; 27. West Virginia 562; 28. Toledo 654; 29. Cal Baptist 659; 30. Northwestern 714; 31. Texas 983.
Individual Champion: Katelyn Tuohy, North Carolina State, 19:27.
Husky Finishers: 63. Anna Gibson 20:22; 73. Sophie O'Sullivan 20:26; 134. Andrea Markezich 20:49; 147. Madison Heisterman 20:53; 158. Naomi Smith 20:58; 170. Sophia Nordenholz 21:04; 174. Ella Borsheim 21:06.

Men's 10,000-meters
Team Results: 1. Northern Arizona 83; 2. Oklahoma State 83; 3. BYU 132; 4. Stanford 195; 5. Wake Forest 204; 6. Wisconsin 212; 7. Air Force 264; 8. Colorado 281; 9. Tulsa 304; 10. North Carolina 323; 11. North Carolina State 334; 12. Syracuse 340; 13. Gonzaga 400; 14. Washington 422; 15. Notre Dame 450; 16. Oregon 465; 17. Harvard 474; 18. Texas 506; 19. Villanova 513; 20. Tennessee 517; 21. Butler 553; 22. Virginia 557; 23. Arkansas 584; 24. Ole Miss 598; 25. Montana State 599; 26. Utah State 618; 27. Alabama 683; 28. Colorado State 704; 29. Michigan 708; 30. Princeton 712; 31. Georgetown 752.
Individual Champion: Charles Hicks, Stanford, 28:43.
Husky Finishers: 13. Brian Fay 29:11 (All-American); 42. Luke Houser 29:37; 104. Isaac Green 30:13; 164. Joe Waskom 30:44; 168. Ed Trippas 30:46; 171. Sam Affolder 30:46; 211. Leo Daschbach 31:11.