Women Win Final Pac-12 Championship At Home

Friday, October 27

University Place, WA

10:00 AM

University of Washington

Pac-12 Championships

October 27, 2023 | Cross Country

Pac-12 Networks Women's Title Recap Sophie O'Sullivan Post-Race Interview Photo Gallery

By: UW Athletic Communications

2023 Pac-12 Cross Country Championships
Friday, Oct. 27 | University Place, Wash.
Chambers Creek Regional Park

Women's Results | Men's Results

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. – The Dawgs went out on top. In its final Pac-12 Cross Country Championships, the Washington women's team hoisted the trophy with a thrillingly tight home course victory this morning at Chambers Creek Regional Park. The 19^th-ranked Huskies edged out fifth-ranked Stanford by two points to win their fourth title in program history, the first since 2009, and the final one.

Washington's men's squad also had its best run of the season and matched its highest conference finish in 29 years, with a second-place effort, led by a 2-3 individual finish from Luke Houser and Nathan Green.

The three previous conference titles for the women came in 1989, 2008, and 2009. Since then the Huskies were runners-up on three occasions, but they pulled together to grab the conference crown for the first time under Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Maurica Powell.

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— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) October 27, 2023

"They were awesome today," said Powell. "That was really fun and just a testament to their self-belief. They raced really well in our first meet, and we thought we could win the conference if we got a little better at a couple things. Then at our second meet we got a lot worse at a lot of things. We just made some mistakes that we corrected today. They did exactly what they needed to do. They were tough and competitive and once they realized they could win with a lap to go, nobody gave an inch the last part of the race."

The Huskies had three women in the top-10, with Sophie O'Sullivan sixth, Chloe Foerster seventh, and Julia David-Smith in 10^th. Stanford had its top-two runners finish first and fifth, but UW's fourth finish, India Weir in 14^th-place, came in ahead of Stanford's No. 3 who placed 17^th. Tori Herman capped UW's scoring in 21^st overall, and UW finished with 58 points, just ahead of the 60 points for the Cardinal.

The men's race was also a battle between UW and 25^th-ranked Stanford, with the Cardinal edging out the Dawgs, 41 points to 50. Oregon was third with 60 points and 9^th-ranked Colorado was fourth with 81. It matches the best finish for UW under Head Coach Andy Powell, as the Dawgs were also runners-up in 2018. Prior to that, the UW men's next top-two Pac-12 finish came all the way back in 1994.

Maurica Powell coached two Pac-12 women's team champions in her stint at Oregon, so this is the third time she's led a team to the top of the conference of champions.

"There was definitely something about it being the last one, and for this group trying to win something for Washington that they wouldn't be able to do again," said Powell.

"Everybody who was involved in the meet was great. The Pac-12 people were great, our officials did a great job, and shout-out to (assistant coach) Chris Kwiatkowski for getting this course in great shape and he worked his tail off for this and we can't thank him enough."

Women's Race

Stanford had a sizable lead early in the women's 6k, but by the halfway point, the Huskies had cut that Stanford lead down to 10 points. O'Sullivan and David-Smith were in a pack of 5-6 runners who were chasing a group of four women that broke away from the rest of the field. Foerster, Weir, Herman, and Ella Borsheim were all hanging tough in the top-30 throughout and helping make it a two-team race.

With a thousand meters to go, splits showed the Huskies inching into the lead by one point. Every second and every point counted down the stretch. O'Sullivan fought for sixth-place, a career-best finish for her, in 19-minutes and 33-seconds. Foerster helped UW hold off Stanford as she gained four spots over the final kilometer, getting up to seventh in 19:34. David-Smith finished in 19:37 for 10^th, India Weir was 14^th in 19:49, and Herman was 21^st in 19:57, giving UW a tight 1-5 spread of 24 seconds.

Powell went right down the list to praise the top-five Husky scorers today.

"Sophie had a really long track season, and took a break and just committed to racing as hard as she could while continuing to train a ton. Chloe Foerster was 44^th at this meet last year and today she was seventh. Julia David-Smith had a torn ACL last year from a freak accident, and she was fantastic today. India Weir had probably the best race of her life; we've seen it in training but she really had to believe in herself to do it and that was a huge difference-maker for us. And Tori Herman only started running in August, and just fully committed to putting her head down and getting a little better each week. She beat a ton of people today that beat her two weeks ago. So everybody leveled up."

Ella Borsheim placed 34^th for the women as their No. 6 finisher in 20:25, and Naomi Smith was the seventh Husky across in 20:30. Samantha Friborg placed 42^nd in a time of 20:37, Rosalie Fish was 48^th overall in a time of 20:45, and Marlena Preigh was 63^rd in 21:11, out of the field of 106 finishers.

PAC-12 CHAMPIONS! ??

Congratulations to Women's @UWTrack on winning their third #Pac12XC title in program history!#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/kNNaziThEf
— Washington Athletics (@UWAthletics) October 27, 2023

The Dawgs beat out a very strong field that had six of the top-25 women's teams in the nation, including UW at 19^th. No. 5 Stanford was second followed by 20^th-ranked Colorado in third with 87 points, then 14^th-ranked Oregon in fourth with 88 points, 21^st-ranked Utah in fifth with 103 points, and 9^th-ranked Oregon State took sixth with 105 points.

Men's Race

Washington was out well led by Houser who was dueling with a trio of Cardinal in the lead pack halfway through the 8,000-meter race. The Dawgs were second at the 3k split but were in first-place at the 5k mark more than halfway through.

Luke Houser is the Pac-12 Silver Medalist!! ??#GoHuskies // #Pac12XC pic.twitter.com/Y9w1sPXfEE
— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) October 27, 2023

Stanford's Ky Robinson eventually pulled away to get the individual win in 22:40, but Houser separated himself as well and cruised to a runner-up finish in 22:51. No Husky male ever claimed the individual Pac-12 crown, with Houser just the second Husky to finish as runner-up, joining Talon Hull who took second back in 2018, also the last time the Huskies were second as a team.

In his first race of the fall and just the second collegiate cross country race of his career, 2023 NCAA 1,500-meter Champion Nathan Green gave the Huskies a huge lift today as he used his miler kick to just edge Stanford's Cole Sprout at the line to take third overall in 22:56.

Sophomore Evan Jenkins had a breakout performance today as he came across in 10^th-place as the third Husky scorer in 23:12 and he was the top freshman finisher. Leo Daschbach placed 16^th in 23:20, the third time he has placed in the top-20 at the conference meet. Rounding out the scoring was true freshman Tyrone Gorze in 19^th in 23:29.

Redshirt freshman Jamar Distel was right behind Gorze in 21^st-place in 23:32 for his best run yet. Joe Waskom made his first run this fall since repping Team USA at the World Championships over the summer and he was a solid 26^th overall in 23:39 as the seventh Dawg. Ronan McMahon-Staggs was 31^st overall, James Crabtree was 39^th and Eric Gibson placed 64^th to round things out.

Head Coach Andy Powell said the men "ran with a lot of emotion today with this meet on our home course. We were pretty bad two weeks ago; we didn't run our whole lineup and people were sick, but those are excuses. We were determined to bring it in the championship part of the season.

"We took control up front and were winning at the 5k and maybe 6k, but Stanford rallied late. But a great performance, a lot of guys today are freshmen or redshirt freshmen, so it was awesome for them to contribute, and second-place matches the best we've been in five years, so we'll take it."

Washington will now have two weeks to prep for NCAA West Regionals, which will determine if the squads will move on to the National Championships. Regionals are slated for Friday, Nov. 10, in Sacramento.

Washington Cross Country
Pac-12 Championship
University Place, Wash. | Chambers Creek Regional Park
Oct. 27, 2023

Men's 8,000-meters
Team Standings: 1. Stanford 41; 2. Washington 50; 3. Oregon 60; 4. Colorado 81; 5. California 132; 6. Washington State 168; 7. Arizona 195; 8. UCLA 241; 9. Arizona State 281.
Individual Champion: Ky Robinson, Stanford, 22:40.
Husky Competitors: 2. Luke Houser, 22:51; 3. Nathan Green, 22:56; 10. Evan Jenkins, 23:12; 16. Leo Daschbach, 23:20; 19. Tyrone Gorze, 23:29; 21. Jamar Distel, 23:32; 26. Joe Waskom, 23:39; 31. Ronan McMahon-Staggs, 23:54; 39. James Crabtree, 24:07; 64. Eric Gibson, 25:20.

Women's 6,000-meters
Team Standings: 1. Washington 58; 2. Stanford 60; 3. Colorado 87; 4. Oregon 88; 5. Utah 103; 6. Oregon State 105; 7. UCLA 195; 8. California 256; 9. Washington State 258; 10. Arizona 295; 11. USC 336; 12. Arizona State 348.
Individual Champion: Amy Bunnage, Stanford, 19:09
Husky Competitors: 6. Sophie O'Sullivan, 19:33; 7. Chloe Foerster, 19:34; 10. Julia David-Smith, 19:37; 14. India Weir, 19:49; 21. Tori Herman, 19:57; 34. Ella Borsheim, 20:25; 39. Naomi Smith, 20:30; 42. Samantha Friborg, 20:37; 48. Rosalie Fish, 20:45; 63. Marlena Preigh, 21:11.