Huskies Vie for NCAA Cross Country Championship
November 17, 1998
The Schedule:
Monday, Nov. 23 -- #9 Washington women at NCAA Cross Country Championships
Rim Rock Farm; Lawrence, Kansas (Hosted by the University of Kansas)
8:30 a.m. Pacific Time (10:30 a.m. CST) -- Women's 5,000-meter race
9:30 a.m. Pacific Time (11:30 a.m. CST) -- Men's 10,000-meter race
Championship Meet Preview: The ninth-ranked Washington women's cross country team competes at the 31-team NCAA Cross Country Championships on Monday, Nov. 23 on the Rim Rock Farm course in Lawrence, Kansas. The Huskies earned one of 13 at-large berths. The Washington women make their seventh NCAA championship appearance, their fourth in the last five years. The Huskies placed 14th at last year's NCAA meet. Washington placed third at the West Regional competition on Nov. 14, finishing behind second-ranked Stanford and No. 11 Arizona. The top-two teams from each region received automatic NCAA berths. The NCAA women's 5,000-meter race is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time (10:30 a.m. Central Time).
Husky Men Send Two: While the Washington men's team failed to qualify for the championship, two Huskies will be competing as individuals. Senior Christian Belz, a native of Bollingen, Switzerland, will make his second NCAA championship appearance in three years on the strength of a 12th place finish at the NCAA West Regional. Belz, the two-time Pac-10 steeplechase runner-up, last competed at the NCAA meet as a sophomore in 1996, placing 70th overall. Joining Belz will be junior David Bazzi, who earned a spot in the championship with a time of 31:13 at the Regional meet, good for 15th place. Bazzi, Washington's premier distance runner on the track oval, was the top Husky finisher in each of the first three meets of the season, accumulating two top-3 finishes in the process. Both men will compete in the NCAA men's 10,000 meter event at 9:30 a.m. PST (11:30 a.m. CST), also to be run on the Rim Rock Farm course in Lawrence, Kansas.
Huskies at the NCAA Championships: The Washington women enter the NCAA Championship Meet with a No. 9 ranking for the second straight season. The Huskies are making their fourth NCAA appearance in the last five years. This is the seventh NCAA championship race for the Washington women, whose best national finish of 12th was registered in both 1989 and 1992. The Huskies placed 13th in 1982, 15th in 1994 and 14th both 1995 and 1997. Regina Joyce registered the highest finish by a UW runner at an NCAA championship, placing second during the 1982 women's race. The 1998 Pacific-10 Conference runner-up, Washington was a third-place NCAA West Regional finisher.
Notable: The Washington women's cross-country team has four runners on the current roster who competed at the 1997 NCAA Championships, helping the Huskies to a 14th-place performance. The four returnees are led by junior Anna Aoki who was third on the team and 88th overall last year. Current junior Margaret Butler placed 98th overall at the NCAAs, but will not be able to compete due to an ankle injury sustained during track season which has not fully healed. Senior Deeja Youngquist was 115th and sophomore Kara Syrdal placed 129th . . . Another Husky competitor with NCAA experience is sophomore Jennifer Smith who transferred from Colorado after helping the Buffaloes to a third-place NCAA cross country finish last fall. Smith, a product of Spokane's (Wash.) Ferris High School, placed 51st at the 1997 NCAA championships . . . The Washington women's team has placed among the top-four at the NCAA West Regional meet in nine of the last 10 years, including first-place finishes in 1989 and 1992 . . . Six of the seven Washington runners at the NCAA Championships are from the Northwest with five from the State of Washington, one competitor from Idaho, and one from California.
Washington Cross Country (Nov. 17, 1998) 2-3
Tentative Washington Women's Lineup for NCAA West Regional Championships (5,000 Meters):
Name Yr. Hometown (Previous School) Notes Anna Aoki Jr. Vancouver, Wash. (Fort Vancouver) 1998 Pac-10 10,000m champion, 1997 Indoor All-American Ashley Foianini Jr. Ephrata, Wash. (Ephrata) 18th at Big Cross meet; 24th in 1997 Sundodger race Courtney Inman Fr. Abbotsford, B.C. (Mouat) Won the 1998 Sundodger Invite "B" race; 31st at 1998 Pac-10s Amy Rose Jr. Norco, Calif. (Norco) 8th in the 1,500 meters at the 1998 Pac-10 championship Jennifer Smith So. Spokane, Wash. (Ferris/Colorado) 2-time NCAA track All-American; 4th at 1998 Pac-10 XC Meet Kara Syrdal So. Shoreline, Wash. (Shorecrest) 2nd at Cowboy Jamboree; 3rd in 5K & 6th in 3K at 1998 Pac-10s Deeja Youngquist Sr. Enumclaw, Wash. (Enumclaw) 1998 NCAA 10,000m track competitor; 5th at Cowboy Jamboree *Susan Werner Fr. Boise, Idaho (Boise) 19th at Cowboy Jamboree; 33rd in 1998 Sundodger race
* - Susan Werner will travel with the team as an alternate, but will not compete unless another runner is unable
NCAA Women's Cross Country Coaches' Poll
No. Team Points No. Team Points
(first-place votes)
1. Brigham Young (9) 225 14. Arizona State 115
2. Stanford 216 15. Kansas State 89
3. Villanova 193 16. Oregon 81
4. Arkansas 187 17. Minnesota 66
5. Wisconsin 185 18. North Carolina 65
6. Michigan 180 19. Wake Forest 64
7. North Carolina Ste. 163 20. Florida 43
8. Georgetown 160 21. South Florida 42
9. WASHINGTON 156 22. Colorado 38
10. Providence 146 23. Cornell 35
11. Arizona 142 24. Tennessee 27
12. William & Mary 125 25. Bowling Green 22
13. Northern Arizona 122
Coach Metcalf: Former Washington All-American Greg Metcalf returned last season to his alma mater to coach the men's and women's cross country teams and assist with the track & field distance runners. He helped the UW women to a 14th-place team finish at the 1997 NCAA cross country meet. On the track, Anna Aoki won the Pac-10 title in the 10,000 meters. She joined three other Husky distance runners at the NCAA track championships; Deeja Youngquist, Danelle Kabush and Geoff Perry. Metcalf served in 1996-97 as the head cross country and assistant track coach at Auburn University. His Tiger athletes accumulated four All-America awards and seven NCAA championship berths. As a competitor at Washington, Metcalf twice earned All-America acclaim for consecutive top-10 national finishes in the steeplechase. He placed 10th at the 1992 NCAA championships and sixth in 1993. Metcalf's collegiate best mark of 8:41.17 ranks fourth among all-time Husky steeplechasers. A 1988 graduate of Ephrata (Wash.) High School, Metcalf was a standout prep runner. He won the 1987 state Class A cross country championship, helping Ephrata to the team title. During the 1988 track season, Metcalf won the state 1,600-meter title. He competed two years at Central Oregon Junior College, garnering All-America honors in both cross country and track. Metcalf received his bachelor's degree in geography from Washington in 1993 and a master's of science in exercise physiology from Auburn in 1996. An outstanding student, he was selected to the All-Pacific-10 Conference academic team on four occasions.
1997 NCAA Championships Recap: Brigham Young upset top-ranked Stanford for the NCAA women's title and Washington finished 14th on Nov. 24, 1997 in the 22-team NCAA Cross Country Championships at the Furman University Golf Course. BYU edged the Cardinal by two points, 100-102. Oregon finished eighth with 234 points and the Huskies, competing at nationals for the third time in four years, had a 341-point total. That finish matched the 14th-place performance of the 1995 Washington women, the last team to compete in the NCAA meet. The highest NCAA finish ever for a Washington women's team was a pair of 12th-place performances in 1989 and 1992. Carrie Tollefson of Villanova covered the 5,000-meter course in 16-minutes, 29-seconds to win the women's individual championship. She posted a 10-second victory over Arizona's Amy Skieresz, the two-time defending champion who finished in 16:39. Seniors Angela Froese and Danelle Kabush, both natives of British Columbia, were the top two Husky finishers. Froese placed 67th with a time of 17:41 and Kabush was 81st in 17:49.
Washington Cross Country (Nov. 17, 1998) 3-3
Last Meet (1998 West Regional Recap): Second-ranked Stanford won its fourth straight men's championship and No. 11 Arizona upset defending women's champion Stanford while the ninth-ranked Washington women placed third during the NCAA West Regional championship meet on Nov. 14 at Woodward Park. Arizona senior Amy Skieresz won her fourth consecutive regional title, covering the 5,000-meter course in 16-minutes, 26-seconds. She helped the Wildcats to a winning total of 78 points. Two-time defending champion Stanford, ranked second nationally, finished two points back with a score of 80. Those two teams received the West Region's two automatic berths to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 23 in Lawrence, Kansas. The Washington women registered a third-place total of 110 points to earn one of 13 at-large invitations to the 31-team NCAA championship field. Washington was paced by senior Deeja Youngquist who finished 11th in 17:17. Husky junior Anna Aoki placed 12th (17:18) while sophomores Jennifer Smith (17:49) and Kara Syrdal (17:55) finished 23rd and 26th respectively. The Cardinal men placed four runners among the top-10 finishers, including runner-up Brad Hauser (30:12), to post a winning team score of 37 points. Arizona's Abdi Abdirahman completed the 10,000-meter course in 30:06 to win the men's individual title. Third-ranked Oregon posted a second-place men's total of 65 points followed by Washington State with 129. Arizona and Portland tied for fourth with matching 133-point totals and the Washington men placed sixth with a score of 144. Senior Christian Belz was the top Husky finisher with a 12th-place time of 31:05. Junior Dave Bazzi, a product of Seattle's O'Dea High School, was the second UW men's finisher in 15th (31:13).
Tentative Washington Lineup for NCAA West Regional Championships:
Men (10,000 meters) Name Yr. Hometown (Previous School) Notes Dave Bazzi Jr. Seattle, Wash. (O'Dea) 1998 Sundodger runner-up; 5th in 10,000m at 1997 Pac-10s Christian Belz Sr. Bolligen, Switzerland Two-time Pac-10 steeplechase runner-up (1997, 98) Jason Fayant So. Spokane, Wash. (Mead/Lane CC) 9th at Sundodger, 2nd among Huskies; 21st at Big Cross meet Paul Harkins Jr. Spokane, Wash. (Ferris) 33rd at 1998 Pac-10 Championships; 11th at Big Cross meet Tom Hildrum Jr. Renton, Wash. (Hazen) 16th in 1998 Sundodger race; 19th at Big Cross meet Mike Hill RS-Fr. Bellevue, Wash. (Bellevue) 36th in 1998 Pac-10 race; 56th at Wolverine Interregional Geoff Perry So. Gig Harbor, Wash. (Gig Harbor) 1998 NCAA track All-American was 10th in 1,500mWomen Liza English So. Yakima, Wash. (Eisenhower) 16th at 1997 Pier Park meet; 40th in Big Cross '98 race Kirsten Howe Jr. Tacoma, Wash. (Bellarmine Prep) Providence transfer; 35th in Big Cross '98 race Amy King So. Mill Creek, Wash. (King's) 37th at Cowboy Jamboree; 61st in 1998 Sundodger race Ashley Foianini Jr. Ephrata, Wash. (Ephrata) 18th at Big Cross meet; 24th in 1997 Sundodger race
Cami Matson Jr. Kent, Wash. (Tahoma) 11th at Big Cross meet; 11th in 1998 Pac-10 1,500m Amy Rose Jr. Norco, Calif. (Norco) Placed 8th in the 1,500m at the 1998 Pac-10 track meet Aleah Thome Jr. Yakima, Wash. (Eisenhower) 24th at Big Cross meet; 56th in 1998 Sundodger race James Day Sr. Renton, Wash. (Hazen/Cent. Wash.) 8th in steeplechase at 1998 Pac-10s; 24th at 1998 Sundodger Jim Rucker Fr. Spokane, Wash. (Gonzaga Prep) 32nd in 1998 Sundodger race; 33rd at Big Cross meet # Dan Schruth Fr. Spokane, Wash. (Ferris) 34th at Big Cross meet in UW debut; 40th at 1998 Sundodger # Dave Schruth So. Spokane, Wash. (Ferris) 31st in 1998 Sundodger race; 27th at 1997 Pac-10 meet
Morgan Thompson So. Spokane, Wash. (Mead/Boise State) Transfer from Boise State in his inaugural meet as a Husky
