Women Take Third, Men Fifth At West Regionals

Friday, November 10

Sacramento, CA

10:00 AM

University of Washington

NCAA West Regional Championships

November 10, 2023 | Cross Country

Photo Gallery

By: UW Athletic Communications

Complete Results

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Husky women's cross country team successfully navigated its way through the NCAA West Regional field to all but secure a 17th consecutive trip to the national championships this morning as the Dawgs finished third overall. The Husky men gave their all and wound up fifth, just a couple points out of third.

The official selections for the NCAA Championships will be announced on Saturday, Nov. 11, at 2 p.m. Pacific in a selection show on NCAA.com. Only the top-two teams in each region automatically advance, so the Huskies will have to wait until Saturday. Thirty-one women's teams and thirty-one men's teams will move on to Charlottesville, Va. in just eight days for the national championships on Nov. 18.

Unofficially, the women are projected to make the field while projections are putting the men just outside the cut, but nothing will be set in stone until Saturday.

Women's Race

The Huskies knew a top-three finish should easily qualify them for nationals and the team put itself in that spot early, sitting second to Stanford after the first mile of the race. At the end of the 6k, the Huskies had the first four women within 20 seconds of each other, all in the top-25. Tori Herman came across as the fifth Dawg in 40th-place to cap the scoring.

Chloe Foerster led UW today placing 13thi n 19:47. Sophie O'Sullivan was 17th in 19:59, then India Weir was 20th in 20:02. Julia David-Smith was 25th in 20:07. Herman crossed in 20:31. Ella Borsheim improved 19 spots over the final split to finish 60th, and Naomi Smith was the No. 7 Husky in 80th in 20:54.

7th-ranked Stanford got the win with 77 points, and 12th-ranked Oregon finished just ahead of the 8th-ranked Huskies with 109 points compared to 115 for the Dawgs. No. 21 Cal Baptist was fourth with 126 and Gonzaga rounded out the top-five with 173.

"Today was going to be a grind for a number of reasons, so I'm grateful and happy that we were able to get the job done and set ourselves up to take a big swing next weekend," said Pac-12 Coach of the Year Maurica Powell. "We have eight days now to get everyone feeling as close to 100-percent as we can. I'm pleased with our toughness and how we played the cards we had today."

All-West Region honors go out to top-25 finishers, so UW's top-four all earned that honor.

Men's Race

The men went out aggressively together in their first 10k of the year, holding the team lead at 1.5-miles, but dropping to second three miles in. At the final split before the finish, the Huskies had dropped to sixth, sixteen points out of third, which was a spot that would have greatly improved their at-large bid chances. The Dawgs made a final rally down the homestretch, moving back up to fifth and closing the gap to third-place to just a mere four points, but finished just behind Portland and Cal Baptist

Stanford won with 73 points and Gonzaga snagged second with 98 for the auto-advancing spots. Portland and 4th-ranked Cal Baptist each scored 125, with the Pilots winning the tiebreak. Washington was fifth with 129. Boise State was sixth with 142 and 26th-ranked Oregon was seventh with 197.

Nathan Green, who took third at Pac-12s in just his second collegiate cross country race, impressed again today in his first ever 10k. He was running in 31st-place halfway through the race but moved up fourteen places in the second half to wind up leading the Huskies in 17th-place in a time of 29:40.

Sophomore Evan Jenkins was just a second behind in 29:41 for 19th-place and Jamar Distel was just a tenth of a second off that in 21st. Luke Houser was 25th in a time of 29:48. Joe Waskom capped the scoring in 47th-place in 30:16. Leo Daschbach was 92nd today and Tyrone Gorze was 113th.

"Nothing's official yet but projections seem to have us a first team out," said Head Coach Andy Powell. "We'll wait and hope but it's certainly disappointing when you're four points away from almost certainly making it, maybe half a second a person. I think the guys fought hard. If we don't make it, there's still a lot of positives. Our top three from today are all underclassmen in cross and all ran well today. The team had a great conference meet. The guys are healthy and training well."

If the Huskies don't see their name on Saturday, it would snap a run of six-straight NCAA Championship appearances, and it would be just the second time Coach Powell has not brought his squad to the final race. The other time was in 2011 at Oregon. One year later, Powell coached Oregon to 20th, then the next three seasons after that they finished 5th, 6th, and 4th.

Washington Cross Country
NCAA West Regional Championships
Sacramento, Calif. | Haggin Oaks Golf Course
Nov. 10, 2023

Women's 6,000-meters
Team Standings (Top-25 of 37): 1. Stanford 77; 2. Oregon 109; 3. Washington 115; 4. Cal Baptist 126; 5. Gonzaga 173; 6. Portland 179; 7. UC Davis 180; 8. Cal Poly 215; 9. Oregon State 228; 10. Boise State 284; 11. UC Riverside 299; 12. UCLA 357; 13. Washington State 408; 14. California 459; 15. USF 474; 16. Cal State Fullerton 486; 17. Saint Mary's 495; 18. Long Beach State 541; 19. UC Irvine 546; 20. Santa Clara 596; 21. San Diego State 616; 22. Idaho 626; 23. Grand Canyon 652; 24. Sacramento State 703; 25. Seattle U. 720
Individual Champion: Kaylee Mitchell, Oregon State, 19:08
Husky Competitors: 13. Chloe Foerster, 19:47; 17. Sophie O'Sullivan, 19:59; 20. India Weir, 20:02; 25. Julia David-Smith, 20:07; 40. Tori Herman, 20:31; 60. Ella Borsheim, 20:42; 80. Naomi Smith, 20:54.

Men's 10,000-meters
Team Standings: 1. Stanford 73; 2. Gonzaga 98; 3. Portland 125; 4. Cal Baptist 125; 5. Washington 129; 6. Boise State 142; 7. Oregon 197; 8. Cal Poly 215; 9. Santa Clara 244; 10. Cal State Fullerton 352; 11. Loyola Marymount 362; 12. California 366; 13. Washington State 382; 14. USF 419; 15. Arizona 434; 16. UC Riverside 438; 17. UC Santa Barbara 454; 18. Idaho 474; 19. UC Davis 500; 20. UCLA 508; 21. Long Beach State 517; 22. UC Irvine 539; 23. Saint Mary's 575; 24. Pepperdine 629; 25. Eastern Washington 630; 26. Cal State Northridge 723; 27. Portland State 781; 28. Seattle U. 789; 29. San Diego 920.
Individual Champion: Ky Robinson, Stanford, 28:55
Husky Competitors: 17. Nathan Green 29:40; 19. Evan Jenkins 29:41; 21. Jamar Distel 29:41; 25. Luke Houser 29:48; 47. Joe Waskom 30:16; 92. Leo Daschbach 31:13; 113. Tyrone Gorze 31:32.