Latest Cross Country PostsOne of the most talented athletes at UW, Christine Babcock's college career started off just how her high school career ended, with fast times and championships. She took seventh overall at the 2008 NCAA Cross Country Championships to lead the Huskies to the NCAA title, then went on to run the second-fastest mile in school history indoors and make the finals at 1,500-meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. After earning All-America honors again in the fall of 2009, Babcock's career hit a big hurdle. Pain in her foot became unbearable, and she went months without running as different doctors gave differeng opinions on just what the problem was. Finally the proper diagnosis was made and Babcock made a return in the fall of 2010 despite running for just a couple weeks, and she still was able to help UW return to the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Now she is training again and looking towards the outdoor season to run her first track race since the 2009 NCAA Championships. As this Flotrack.org video shows, it has taken a lot to persevere...
Watch more video of 2011 University of Washington Final Qualifier on flotrack.org Husky great Amy Lia, the 2006 NCAA Champion at 1,500-meters, is in the midst of a return to the sport and has signed a contract with local company Brooks. Lia, as well as former Husky Katie Follett, are part of a new group of elite women's runners nicknamed the Brooks Beasts. As part of a new campaign encouraging athletes to tell stories about their "PRs" (Personal Records), Lia talks about her breakthrough race, which also happened to be in the NCAA final. Not a bad time for the fastest race of her life!
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On Friday, Sports Radio 950 KJR AM -- the flagship station for the Washington ISP Sports Network -- held its KJR Kares A-Thon at Anthony's on Pier 66. Several Huskies -- including hoops star Isaiah Thomas, men's crew coach Michael Callahan, men's tennis coach Matt Anger and cross country and track coach Greg Metcalf -- all made the trek to downtown Seattle for an appearance. The annual event, hosted by KJR personality Mike Gastineau, is held to raise money for several Seattle-area charitites. Under an unusual interview format, all four Husky representatives took the stage at the same time for the interview. The segment started with all three coaches making their argument for which of their sports Thomas would be best suited to play if Lorenzo Romar let him tryout. It was discovered that Isaiah played tennis while in prep school, so I think Matt Anger won out on the argument. Each coach gave an update of their sports and what's going on this fall and Thomas talked about his team. There was a nice amount of purple being donned by the crowd in attendance, so the Huskies were well-represented off stage as well. Also in attendance were former Husky basketball great Mike Hayward, UW quarterback legend Hugh Millen and football and hoops play-by-play announcer Bob Rondeau. It was a great time had by all and a good opportunity for the Husky family to help out their flagship station in the community. For more info on KJR Kares A-Thon ... click here. To listen to the interview and other segments from Friday ... click here.
One of the top websites covering the sport of track and field and cross country, Flotrack.org finished up a countdown of the top-five women's teams to watch in the current season, ranking the Husky women No. 2 on that list. The video does a nice job showcasing some of the returning Huskies as well as a few newcomers with interview and race highlights from the Flotrack archives. Flotrack's Teams To Watch list began with No. 5 Florida, moving on to No. 4 Oregon, No. 3 Florida State, the Huskies at No. 2, and the defending champs from Villanova at No. 1. The Washington and Washington State cross country teams will start what could be a new tradition on Sept. 3 when they come together in Ephrata, Washington for a dual meet to start the 2010 season. The Wenatchee World talked with Husky coach Greg Metcalf, an Ephrata High School alum, about the idea for the unique season-opener. Few teams in the nation run dual meets anymore. Metcalf still holds Ephrata school records in the 1,600- and 3,200-meters, and the dual meet will be run on a 2,000-meter loop right next to his former high school. Support will hopefully be strong at the race, as the meet is at the center of an exciting day in local sports according to the World It'll be a big day for Ephrata sports, as the Tigers harriers will compete in a three-team jamboree before the UW-WSU matchup. After the dual, the Ephrata football team will play Quincy at Kiwanis Field. Click here for the full preview which includes a vintage photo of Metcalf from early in his Husky coaching days. Ever a favorite of Flotrack, recently graduated track and cross country standout Katie Follett has joined the track video site's roster of bloggers. Follett's first entry concerns her first An eight-time All-American and school record-holder in the mile and 1,500-meters, Follett is running professionally now for Brooks. The photo at the right has her in the middle in the bright yellow Brooks jersey. Senior Katie Follett recently wrote a piece for GoHuskies looking back on her record-setting career and also how she rebounded from the disappointment of the NCAA final earlier this month. She does the same for Flotrack.org this week, as the site features Follett for a 10-minute interview right outside of Drake Stadium where the U.S. Championships were held last week. Follett admits that she may have put too much pressure on herself heading into the final and that negatively affected her performance. She then touches on her USA effort where she placed 13th, and discusses signing with Brooks Running, a local Seattle company, to be able to run professionally. "I'm so optimistic about the future and them as a company," Follett says about her new partnership. UW recruit Megan Goethals has collected a third national title in her senior season, as she won the 2-mile run at the New Balance Nationals on Friday in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Rochester, Michigan native posted the second-best 2-mile time in U.S. history, running 10:01.16, barely missing the national record of 10:01.08 set in 2002 by Molly Huddle, one of the top women's professional runners. Here's an interview with Goethals after the race. She talks about how excited she is to join the rest of UW's stellar recruiting class, and says why she chose UW. Here is the complete race footage thanks to Flotrack. Goethals says that win will be her final prep race and she'll now start getting ready to run cross country for the Huskies in the fall. It caps an epic senior year in which she won the Footlocker Cross Country National Championship in the fall, then won the 2-mile title at Nike Indoor Nationals in March. She was named the Gatorade National Cross Country Athlete of the Year. Also just a week ago Goethals won two titles at the Midwest Meet of Champions, lowering her 1600m PR to a U.S.-leading 4:43.05 and her 800m PR to 2:10.58. A number of Husky track recruits closed out their careers with big bangs over the weekend, led by state titles for Sean Krinik and Chloe Curtis in California and a trio of titles for Megan Goethals in Michigan. Krinik of Valencia High in Yorba Linda, Calif. astonished with a new U.S.-leading mark in the 800-meters of 1:48.20, nearly a full second faster than the time he posted just a week ago which also led the country at the time. That time is the eighth-fastest high school mark ever run, and earned him his second-straight state title at the distance. If Krinik merely matches that time next season, he would rank sixth in UW history. "Seeing that time makes me feel so accomplished," said Krinik to OCVarsity.com. "I never thought I would be there and it felt awesome to run that time." Curtis, out of Redondo Beach, also led the nation at 800-meter on the women's side for much of the year but chose to focus on the 1,600m at state. She did not have the top time coming in, but she again proved to be the class of California's mid-distance crew as she turned in a new PR of 4:46.63 to take the win. Curtis told local paper The Dailiy Breeze that her runner-up finish from 2009 fueled her all season and especially in Saturday's final. "This year, I came a lot more focused. I was desperate to win that title. This was my last race," Curtis said. "There was no way I was letting someone run away with this race. In that last 200, no one was going to run with me. I had a year of boiling over it in my head to think about this race." Also turning in fantastic finishes at the CIF finals were Liberty Miller (Canoga Park, Calif.) and Megan Morgan (Del Mar, Calif.) in the 3,200-meters. The future U-Dubbers were the top two senior finishers at the longest distance. Miller was second in 10:23.00 while Morgan was right behind in third in 10:29.70. In Michigan, Megan Goethals closed her record-setting career in proper fashion, winning state titles in the 1,600-meters, 3,200-meters, and on the 4x800-meter relay. Every one of her runs resulted in a new state meet record. She won the 1,600m in 4:47.37, six seconds ahead of her nearest competitor. She took the 3,200m in 10:22.75, breaking a 14-year-old record, and led off the 4x8 relay with a 2:11 split. Goethals gave the following interview to MileSplit last week following her incredible 10:00.15 3,200-meter effort. One side note to how the Huskies finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships next week is that as long as they score on both sides, both the men's and women's team should be in line for another impressive finish in the USTFCCCA Program Of The Year standings. The awards, named for John McDonnell on the men's side and Terry Crawford on the women's side, are in their second year of existence, and average out a school's finish at the NCAA Championships in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track, to show which overall program earned the most distinction over the full year. The only requirement is competing and scoring at all three championship events; two out of three doesn't cut it. Last year the UW women's program took ninth in the final standings. Right now they sit in 10th place following a 3rd-place finish in cross country and a 28th-place finish in indoor track. They are second among Pac-10 teams behind Oregon. The Husky men are 12th overall heading to Eugene, following a 10th-place Program Of The Year finish in 2009. The men's cross country squad was 18th at nationals, followed by a 20th-place finish in indoor track. Oregon and Arizona State are the only Pac-10 teams ahead of the Dawgs. New weekly outdoor rankings were also released by the USTFCCCA prior to next week's showdown at Oregon. The men's team moved up two more spots to 18th in the nation, boosted by PRs from James Alaka in the 200m, Zack Midles in the hammer, and Joe Zimmerman in the javelin. The women ticked up one spot to 41st as Mel Lawrence and Falesha Ankton made NCAAs with season-bests. In Tuesday's Seattle Times, columnist Jerry Brewer writes a terrific piece on Husky senior Katie Follett and Seattle Pacific's Jessica Pixler, who each own the fastest times at Despite their proximity and shared skills, the two had never really spoken until Mt. SAC. Brewer looks at how the pair viewed each other leading up to that race, and how things have changed since. "At that moment, Jessica Pixler and Katie Follett had no idea this was a precursor to excellence, a little moment that would swell in significance, a hint they were about to be united even though they had spent four years dancing around each other." GoHuskies was at Gasworks Park when the Times set up the above photo. Check out the previous post for some behind the scenes shots. Iowa's Katie Flood, heading to Washington this fall, Here is an excerpt from the above article, in reference to her 3k time: "One thing was missing from her resume that really cements prep distance stars from the rest of the pack: a standout performance on the track, the kind that makes jaws drop around the country. That distinguishing mark has now been met, and she will undoubtedly go down in history as the greatest prep distance runner that the state of Iowa has ever produced." Flood's 3k time was 15 seconds under her previous PR which was already the fastest in state history. Later that same day she came back to anchor a win for Dowling Catholic in the 4x800m relay. Two days after that Flood surprised with a win in the open 800 with a big PR of 2:09.76, then she finished off the quadruple with a victory in the 1,500-meters in 4:31.33. The win in the 3,000-meters was the fourth in a row for Flood. Her lengthy list of achievements this year also includes a victory at Nike Cross Nationals in the fall and a few more individual titles at the Drake Relays earlier this season. Head track and cross country coach Greg Metcalf has previously been featured on Flotrack talking about "The Mental Edge" of track and field, and now the track website has another segment up with Coach Metcalf where he discusses his recruiting strategies and advises potential recruits to be proactive in their search. Coach Metcalf talks about finding diamonds in the rough such as 400-meter school record-holder Jordan Boase, as well as targeting the local prep stars like Norris Frederick. It was a beautiful day for a photo op at Seattle's picturesque Gasworks Park on Friday, but senior Katie Follett was tucked away among the heavy machinery along with Seattle Pacific's Jessica Pixler, rather than soaking up the sun. The Seattle Times will be featuring the two local stars sometime in the next two weeks, and brought them together at Gasworks, a nice middle ground between the two campuses. Check out a couple behind-the-scenes shots with Follett and Pixler taking direction from Times photographer John Lok Follett and Pixler have been blazing separate record-setting careers in Seattle over the past few years, with Follett leading the emergence of Washington's outstanding women's distance program, and Pixler collecting an armfull of national titles at the Division-II level. Recently, their paths have begun to cross more, and the last two times have resulted for school records for both in the mile and 1,500-meters. Follett was able to get the better of Pixler at the Mt. SAC Relays and posted an NCAA-leading time Now the two will focus on going after conference and national titles at their own level, and won't see each other on the starting line again until possibly the USA Championships in July. But each are hoping they could be friendly rivals at the professional level soon. GoHuskies will keep you updated on the status of the feature. One week after competing for the International All-Stars at the Kansas Relays, former Husky great Jordan Boase of Bothell renewed his allegiance with the red, white, and blue, as the quarter-miler ran for Team USA at last weekend's Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Boase was part of a very prestigious distance medley relay that included 2008 Olympian and U.S. Champion Nick Symmonds. Symmonds, Boase, Jacob Hernandez, and David Torrance made up the USA Blue team that went against Kenya, Morocco, Australia, Canada, and another USA squad, the "Red" team, as part of the USA vs. the World series at Penn. Symmonds led off for 1200-meters, handing to Boase in second-place. Boase recorded the second-best 400-meter split of anyone, clocking 45.40 seconds at the handoff to Hernandez. The USA Blue team wound up taking second in 9:25.02, just a fraction of a second behind Kenya in at 9:24.97. Boase has now made two-straight appearances at the legendary meet, as he helped the UW sprint medley to a second-place finish at the 2009 meet. Over in Iowa at the 101st Drake Relays, the other legendary meet held last weekend, UW recruit Katie Flood followed up her 3,000-meter four-peat with a U.S.-leading 1,500-meter run on Saturday. She lowered her own Iowa state record with a victory in 4:28.30, which was also a new Drake Relays record for a prep. Flood ran the time despite having already anchored another win earlier Saturday, as her Dowling Catholic crew won the 4x800-meters in yet another meet record. Here are a few Flood-related videos from Drake. Check out the 1,500m win where she leads wire to wire and shows a great kick down the stretch, after already running 800-meters earlier! Flood wins the 1,500m in a new U.S. best time of 4:28.30 Flood and the rest of the 4x8 talk to Flotrack after their win Husky track and cross country recruit Katie Flood made history today with her fourth consecutive victory in the high school girls 3,000-meter run at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa. Flood, who attends Dowling Catholic of West Des Moines, broke her own personal meet and stadium record with a winning time of 9:43.39. That bettered the time she ran as a freshman in According to the Des Moines Register, Flood is the third girl to win an individual event four times at the meet. Abby Emsick of Council Bluffs Lewis Central took the discus from 1999 to 2002 and Debbie Carroll of Collins won the 100-yard dash from 1971 to 1974. Flood was the Nike Cross National Champion in the fall and a Top-10 finisher at Footlocker Cross Country Nationals as well. Here is a link to Flood's bio written after she signed her Letter of Intent with Washington. (Photo taken from Des Moines Register) AVONDALE, La. - Former Husky All-American Alex Prugh is competing in the PGA Tour's Zurich Classic this weekend at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La. The Spokane native is scheduled to tee off from the No. 1 tee at 1:20 p.m. local time (11:20 a.m. PT). He is paired with Briny Baird and Harrison Frazar. He enters this week 40th in the Fed-Ex Cup standings -- dropping six spots from 34th the previous week. Here is a sampling of some of the big names he is ahead of in the standings: Padraig Harrington (43), Sean O'Hair (44), Stewart Cink (46), Ryan Moore (47), Mike Weir (52), Zach Johnson (59), Vijay Singh (72) and Sergio Garcia (74). And, in case you're wondering, Prugh is 174th in the PGA Tour official World Rankings. Some guy named Tiger is No. 1 followed by Phil Mickelson. California meets have been the headliners for the Husky track recruits in recent weeks, and while there was another big to-do down in Southern California at the Mt. SAC Relays, a number of future UW tracksters competed this weekend at the Larry Eason Invitational Track and Field Meet at Snohomish High School. Hurdler extraordinaire Kayla Stueckle of Emerald Ridge won both the women's 100m and 300m hurdles in times of 14.84 and 44.30, respectively. Stueckle won by more than three seconds in the 300m hurdles. Michelle Fero of Holy Names also ran the state's best 400-meter dash this year at 57.10. Back down in Caliornia, Chloe Curtis was one again involved in a dramatic finish, as the Redondo Union star anchored a state-record time in the girls 4x1,600m relay. Flotrack.org has some nice footage of the future Husky gutting it out across the finish line. Also at Mt. SAC, Megan Morgan of Torrey Pines High was the anchor on the winning girls distance medley relay, which blew away the competition by 18 seconds to win in a national-leading time of 11:41.84, which surpassed the time of Redondo Union and Curtis from the Arcadia Invite a few weeks back. Torrey Pines' time ranks it as the 12th fastest team in U.S. history. Here is Flotrack footage of Morgan anchoring for Torrey Pines. She takes the baton at around the 6:50 mark, and you'll have to forgive a mispronunciation of her name. Seven-time All-American Katie Follett talked with the media at Oregon's Hayward Field after she won the 1,500-meters at the Pepsi Team Invitational last Saturday, defeating a couple Oregon All-Americans in the process. Trackfocus.com transcribed the full interview, which reveals that Follett and her longtime UO rivals have developed into friends over the years. One of the year's most prestigious high school track meets, the Arcadia Invitational, was held over the weekend at where else but Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California. A number of Washington's top recruits for the 2010-11 school year were running in Saturday night's invitational section, with some local recruits also making the trip down to SoCal. A couple weeks after posting the nation's No. 1 time at 800-meters, Redondo's Chloe Curtis was part of another national-leading mark, as she anchored the winning distance medley relay team in a time of 11:54.75. Earlier in the day, Curtis was upset with herself for taking second in the 800-meters in a slower time than she'd run previously, and she told The Daily Breeze that she was ready to atone for it shortly thereafter. "My blood was boiling after that 800," Curtis said. "It was not as well as I wanted to do, and I felt I could run faster. I was excited to go out again, and I had my team behind me so I wasn't going to wimp out. "I wanted an Arcadia title. And it's even better with the team." She took the baton in eighth-place but then split approximately 4:51 for the final 1,600-meters, taking the lead after one lap and running uncontested the rest of the way. Elsewhere, Puyallup's Kayla Stueckle, one of the top returning 300m hurdlers in the nation, took third in that event in a time of 43.70 seconds. In the top heat of the women's 3,200-meters, Husky recruits Libery Miller (Canoga Park, CA) and Megan Morgan (Del Mar, CA) took second and third, respectively, in times of 10:31.05 and 10:37.51. Sean Krinik, who took the national boys 800-meter lead at the same meet where Curtis posted the best girls time, move up to the mile run and took fourth in 4:14.15. Spokane's A.J. Maricich also cleared 6-11 in the high jump, which was the best clearance of the day though he ranked second on attempts. Here are full results from the Arcadia Invite. Runnerspace.com also was in attendance and filmed every race. Here is the link to the women's DMR with Curtis running the anchor leg, and all additional races are on the left side of the screen. One additional note on a soon-to-be Husky: All-American Katie Flood out of Des Moines, Iowa, ran the nation's top 1,500-meter time at the Jim Duncan Invitational in Iowa, crossing in 4:31.38. That broke the Iowa state record formerly held by Flood's older sister, Betsy. Continuing to shape up to be quite the class! A number of UW's recent track and field signees have wasting little time making names for themselves early in the outdoor season. Several members of the group have already established themselves atop the national leaderboards. Mid-distance standouts Chloe Curtis of Redondo Beach, California and Sean Krinik from Yorba Linda, California, each posted the nation's top times at 800-meters at the Azusa Distance Meet of Champions on March 28. Curtis won in a new personal-best of 2:09 Curtis' exploits earned her a feature interview on dyestat.com, one of the main hubs of prep track and field. The following is an excerpt on her #1 800-meter time: "I just ran hard down the backstretch to make sure I was separated from the pack, and closed in a 63 last 400 for my 2:09. I was pretty happy with the race, and I got a PR, but I feel like I'm ready to go much faster right now. When I found out I had the US #1 time I was really happy about it, and it makes me feel good knowing that I'm already running fast this early in the season." Here is the full Curtis interview on Dyestat. As for Krinik, the defending California state champion in the 800, his coach Pat Hadley told the OC Register, "He's faster at this time of year than he was this time last year, so that's really exciting." Still, perhaps the most impressive mark thus far was just turned in by Boise, Idaho's Kasen Covington, who won the triple jump at the Reed Sparks Rotary Invitational in Nevada this past Saturday, April 3, with a new lifetime-best jump of 52-feet, 4-inches. If Covington were to duplicate that mark at UW, he would shoot to second in school history. Covington also won the long jump with a mark of 23-4 3/4. His triple jump marks currently ranks second in the country, just a quarter-inch out of first. Finally, of Del Mar, California currently ranks second on the athletic.net national list at 3200-meters with a time of 10:30.05. Add that to Megan Goethals' indoor national title at 2-miles from last month and it has already been quite a track season for the future Dawgs with much more to come!
Here are a couple snippets from the interview. Click here for the full feature.
After being the runner-up indoors, is the ultimate goal a national championship? Well, definitely being the runner-up, I feel kind of hungry going towards outdoor nationals. The goal whenever you're at NCAAs is to win a national championship. To be right behind her and to see her throwing her hands up in the air and to know I was the next girl, definitely I'll be thinking about that and how that felt going into the outdoor season. I wasn't disappointed with my race. That's the best finish I've ever had. I felt like it was a good race for me. I guess we'll see. That's all you can say! I said that you get three days of the year to get to go for a national title and you just really hope that you're not injured and that you feel good on those days. The goal is to get to that day outdoor and just be feeling good. I felt pretty good indoors, so hopefully I can do that again.
What does it feel like to have been a huge part of Washington's distance success in the past four years? I've had a great experience here at Washington. I wouldn't change a thing. I've loved it here. I feel really blessed to have had great girls to train with and obviously there's Anita Campbell, Mel Lawrence, Kendra Schaaf, Kailey Campbell and Christine Babcock. I get to go to practice with these girls everyday. Multiple All Americans! They've done really great things and have a great attitude at practice and everyone wants to work hard. I feel like going to practice every day with them has made me a better distance runner than I could have been on my own training. Obviously Coach Metcalf is a big part of that. I love him as a coach. He's very enthusiastic and he really believes in each of us, in our potential and what we can accomplish. I think the combination of that with girls that I train with has just been awesome and a great experience. An insightful and in-depth Q&A with freshman mid-distance specialist Justine Johnson was posted recently on Flotrack.org. Johnson, a native of Victoria, B.C., redshirted the fall cross country season and then ran very well on the Dempsey oval during the indoor season. Sh Here is an excerpt from the piece, with Johnson considering her long-term goals: "My overall long-term goal would be having the opportunity to compete for my country (Canada) some day. I have dreamt about going to the Olympics since I was a freshman in high school. By my final year at UW, I would love to have helped the team to a XC NCAA title. I was excited coming into the cross-country season in the fall, watching the older girls on the team train and prepare for nationals. It has given me lots of motivation to try to get there myself someday, and be part of a NCAA championship team. Being able to train with such talented and hard working teammates like Katie Follett, I have seen a lot of improvement in myself already. I think a lot of big things could happen by senior year." Click here to read the rest of the interview.
Goethals, the 2009 Footlocker National Cross Country Champion who will join the Washington program in the fall, erased a 25-meter gap heading into the final lap to nip Emily Sisson at the line in a time of 10:10.14 compared to 10:10.21 for Sisson. Goethals had trailed by 40-50 meters just a few laps earlier. According to Runnersweb.com, Goethals was already thinking about putting forth her best effort for Husky head coach Greg Metcalf. "I did not want to tell Coach Metcalf, 'Oh yeah, I kind of fell behind a little and got third,'" she said. Goethals' winning time also broke the meet record, set just last year by Jordan Hasay, a current freshman All-American at Oregon. The win was amazingly similar to the finish at Footlocker Nationals in the fall, where Goethals came from seemingly nowhere to catch Chelsey Sveinsson at the finish to take the cross country title. Here is the full race video from Saturday: Goethals Wins National Indoor 2-Mile Run And here is the bio for Goethals from her UW signing: Megan Goethals With more than a hundred years of tradition and more than a hundred athletes on the roster year-by-year, there are certainly a huge number of Washington track and field alumni scattered around the world. Last Saturday, after the MPSF C
Among the alumni in attendance were 2006 NCAA 1,500m champion Amy Lia, 1976 Pac-10 shot put champion Russ Vincent, 2000 Pac-10 shot put champion Ben Lindsey, 2000 decathlon All-American Jacob Predmore, 1982 800-meter All-American Rob Webster with his son, current Husky Rob Webster Jr., plus many more. Also making an appearance was the legendary coach of many of the alums, Ken Shannon, who coached the men's team from 1968-97.
Head Coach Greg Metcalf addressed the alumni, family and friends, and current UW All-Americans Katie Follett and Jeremy Taiwo both spoke about their experiences on the team.
Taiwo talked about how foot surgery in high school led to his development as a decathlete.
"I still wanted to score points for my team, so I thought I'd try shot put or discus, and I'd go out on crutches and then throw the discus, and I actually beat some people which was kind of sad," he said to a big laugh. "Senior year I thought maybe this injury was for a reason, so I tried a bit of the hurdles, and the javelin, and ... it took a while but a lot of things started clicking, and it's just the most fun thing I've ever done, I have fun every time I do a multi-event because there's ups and downs and you've just got to keep working to get that finished product."
The Renton, Wash. native and Newport grad was asked about why he settled on Washington, especially when his father Joseph was an All-American at Washington State.
(Coach Ken Shannon holds court)
Follett then took the microphone from her coach and talked about her role in building the women's distance program into a national powerhouse.
"I knew that (Coach Metcalf) believed in me, and he thought I could be great. I wanted that kind of positive atmosphere," Follett said. "At that point there were a few really good girls who had just come onto the team, and it was a young team. I wanted to help that get going and help the program. I just feel really blessed by the atmosphere that's on the team. All the girls when they come to practice every day, they bring their hard hats, they're excited to be here and they want to work hard. I've never been on another team that has that attitude, and it's why we've been able to experience so much success as a team the past few years."
Metcalf then asked Follett to recount the feeling of being handed the NCAA Championship trophy for the first time after the Huskies took the 2008 cross country title in Indiana.
"I cried because every time I got to the state meet in high school, I thought that our team was going to win or that I was going to win and something terrible happened and I never won, ever. So when they handed me the trophy I just was like, 'We won? It actually came true?'
Follett also credited her dad with turning her into a runner, saying how he would let her run with him on the last mile of his runs, and he would always let her win, until the point came where she could actually beat him. She ended her talk saying that although she has all her prerequisites finished for physical therapy school, she will hold off a few years before applying to continue running, and that Metcalf would continue as her coach as she tries to compete at the next level. "I'm going to try and keep running, because this is what I really love to do and I'm passionate about it. I just want to ride it through until the end and see where it can take me," said Follett.
The night was certainly a success, with old Dawgs hearing from the athletes they helped pave the way for, and the current Huskies seeing that UW track is a lifelong membership. Metcalf closed by urging those in attendance to try and round up more of their teammates to the next reunion, sooner rather than later. Head track coach Greg Metcalf, a perennial favorite of Flotrack.org, is currently featured on the site as part of a series where prominent coaches discuss the mental aspect of the sport. Coach Metcalf discusses the approach he takes with mental preparation and shares some anecdotes about 2009 World Championships participant Ryan Brown as well as praising the stability of current All-American Christine Babcock. Watch the full video by clicking this link. Head track & field coach Greg Metcalf sat down in front of the Flotrack.org cameras recently and gave a pair of interviews. In the first he looks back on the recently concluded cross country season focusing mostly on the women's team where the Husky women placed third led by Kendra Schaaf's runner-up efforts. Watch the XC recap here. The next clip looks forwards to the upcoming track season, with Coach Metcalf giving a rundown of the top athletes that the Dawgs will look to for points at the two NCAA Championships this season. Here's the link to the track outlook. With the demise of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last winter, many wondered about the future of the annual Sports Star of the Year Awards. After all, the event had been around since former P-I sports editor Royal Brougham started the awards in 1935. However, the Sports Star of the Year Awards are alive and well and now is in its 75th year. The Seattle Sports Commission and Seattle Children's Hospital have teamed up to continue the awards, which will take place on Jan. 19 at Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle. For the first time voting will take place online. Visit www.seattlesports.org until Jan. 15 to vote. Winners will be announced at the event on Jan. 19. Tickets can be ordered here. The UW's Jake Locker, Nick Taylor, Lorenzo Romar and the IRA national champion men's crew are nominees for the Male Sports Athlete of the Year. On the women's side, Washington's Tamari Miyashiro, Kendra Schaaf and the NCAA national champion softball team are among the nominees. Todd Dybas with SeattlePI.com wrote this great summary of this year's event. Sophomore standout Kendra Schaaf is a fast rising star in the NCAA but perhaps even moreso in her native Canada, where she won the Canadian Cross Country National Championships last month just a few days after taking second in the NCAA Championships. On the Athletics Canada website, the home site of Canada's national team for track and field, Schaaf was named the Mondo Top Performer of the Month, complete with a large photo of Schaaf that dominates the home page. Look for Kendra to make her mark on the track this indoor season at UW's Dempsey Indoor facility, which hosts five major meets from January through March. One of the best success stories in the past decade for Washington track and cross country was Mark Mandi, a walk-on who evenutally became a two-time All-Pac-10 First Tea Here's one excerpt from one of Mandi's current runners, Tyler Hart. "He's awesome," Hart said. "In college, he put in the work to accomplish things that didn't seem possible. Here, we're having people improve just because Mark believes in them. He sees himself in a lot of our shoes because he was a back-of-the-pack runner at one time." Click here to read more. The day before the NCAA Championships, the UW women's cross country team was featured in a number of race previews around the web. Here's a rundown to get ready for Monday morning. Jerry Brewer of the Seattle Times profiled the team and what makes it tick in this column. NCAA.com has a race preview here along with a link to the live stream for Monday. Flotrack.org brought Coach Metcalf in for a video interview at the course Sunday morning. Click here to get Metcalf's thoughts. And finally our own entry on UW's involvement in the official NCAA press conference. The NCAA released its annual report of graduation success rates among Division I instititions and, once again, the University of Washington showed it ranks second in the Pac-10 and second among all public institutions on the West Coast. Washington's football federal graduation rate is just two percent shy of the rate for all Division I student-athletes. For the complete story and links to the NCAA reports, visit this piece posted yesterday on GoHuskies.com. The Associated Press also wrote a good story on the topic, which you can find here. A couple of facts that were not widely reported included the graduation success rate (GSR) among football programs in the Pac-10. Among scholarship athletes, the Huskies rate second in the league in both graduation success rate and the four-year rolling federal graduation rate average. Below is a chart showing how the UW fares against league rivals.
A couple of other key facts that the report revealed about the academic success of various UW sports programs:
? The graduation rate for UW scholarship student-athletes who exhausted their eligibility at the school during this reporting period was an impressive 90 percent. A total of 503 student-athletes fit into this category. Wednesday's KING-5 sports feature on senior Katie Follett is up online now for those who may have missed it. Lisa Gangel came out and met the Huskies for an early morning run through the nature preserve behind Husky Ballpark before the sun even threatened to show up. Don't be deceived by the enhanced light in the shots of the team running, it was pretty dark out there! Watch the full segment here. KING-5 News sports anchor Lisa Gangel and a trusty cameraman rose early this morning to meet the Husky women's cross country squad at 6:45 a.m. in the nature preserve off Lake Washington behind the Husky Ballpark.
Make sure to watch for the feature on this evening's news. It is scheduled to run first on the 5 o'clock broadcast. Perhaps the busiest Husky sports weekend possible takes place over the next three days with eight different Washington sports team heading into competition, including the men's and women's cross country teams at the NCAA Regionals and the women's soccer team in the opening rounds of the NCAA Championships. For a complete calendar of events, just click on the front page of GoHuskies.com and select the "Calendar" tab to see a complete schedule. On that schedule, you will find links to all the live Internet-related coverage provided by GoHuskies.com. UW flagship radio station 950 KJR AM will be in full Husky mode throughout the weekend and, in particular, all day Saturday. KJR will have live coverage of all three UW men's basketball games, including tonight's opener against Wright State. Tomorrow the station will jump start 14-straight hours of UW coverage at 8 a.m. and won't conclude until after the men's hoops post-game show that should end at around 10 p.m. So, if Bob Rondeau seems a little out of sync this weekend - keep in mind he is planning to call the UW-Wright State basketball game tonight, travel to Corvallis to provide the action at the Washington-Oregon State football game tomorrow. Then, he will return to Bank of America Arena on Sunday for the Huskies' contest against Portland State. That's around 12 hours of solid play-by-play and analysis over the next three days.
Normally, encouraging Washington fans to visit the state of Oregon wouldn't necessarily be among the Husky athletic department's top priorities. But, with five UW athletic teams competing down south this weekend, it might be a good time to get on the road and make a weekend of it! Tomorrow at 4 p.m., the Husky women's soccer team opens its NCAA Tournament experience with a first-round game against the University of Mississippi at the University of Portland's Merlo Field. The winner of that game plays Sunday at noon against the winner of Portland vs. Denver. Tickets are available through the UP ticket office. On Saturday, the defending national champion UW women's cross country team and the nationally-ranked men's squad both compete in the NCAA West Regionals at Springfield (Ore.) Country Club. The men's race begins at 9:45 a.m., while the women take to the course at 10:45 a.m. Both teams appear to have already qualified for the NCAA Championships and will be using the Regionals to build their resume and prepare for the national championship race. At 12:30 p.m., the Husky football team will kick-off its final road game of the year when it travels to Corvallis, Ore. to play Oregon State. Washington needs to win its final three games of the season to become bowl eligible and hopes to get back on the winning track against the Beavers. Finally on Saturday, Coach Tia Jackson's women's basketball team opens its regular-season at 2 p.m. at Portland State's Stott Center. Tickets are available through the PSU athletic website. Make sure to check the Washington DOT website for traffic down the I-5 corridor before you go! And, when you see a fellow Husky on the road, give 'em a quick wave! Senior cross country All-American Katie Follett has a lengthy chat with Runners World now up on their website. Follett talks about the current state of the top-ranked Huskies, her training regimen and future in the sport, and how she has been able to go from a solid high school runner to a five-time All-America collegian. Click here to view the Q&A within the daily Racing News blog, or use this link to go straight to the chat in the future. Follett will lead the Huskies to Springfield, Ore. this Saturday for NCAA West Regionals at the Springfield Country Club. Here's an excerpt, where Follett talks about the pressure of holding the No. 1 ranking: "KF: Most of the pressure comes from what we put on ourselves. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves because we want to work really hard and we want to run well and every single girl on the team wants to reach her potential. And if we put that together, we know we can count on each other every time we step on the line, that every single person is going to give 100 percent. And that's the kind of pressure I think we feel, more than the bullseye that's on our back." The week six national cross country rankings were released today by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association today and the Husky women's team maintained its residency at the top of the polls. The Huskies have been No. 1 for more than a year, taking the top spot last October 7. The women repeated as Pac-10 Champions last Friday. The Husky men placed fourth, and slipped a bit to 17th in Tuesday's poll from their season-high of 13th. For the complete polls, click here. Former Husky Mike Sayenko, a 2006 graduate and native of Bellevue, Wash., finished 14th today at the New York Marathon, one of the world's premier races. Sayenko, a Sammamish High alum, has developed into one of the top marathoners in the world over the past few years, and was the eighth-best American finisher today in New York, running a personal-best time of 2-hours, 16-minutes, and 38-seconds. American Meb Keflezighi won the race in 2:09:15, becoming the first American man to win the race in 27 years. At UW, Sayenko ranks fifth on the school's all-time 10,000-meter list with a time of 29:07. In his last cross country season in 2006, he was 65th at the NCAA Championships, helping UW to a 12th-place finish, its best finish since 1993. He became the first Husky since 1992 to run at three NCAA XC Championships. In November of 2007, Sayenko was 29th at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Here are the full results. Recently, Washington Husky athletic department officials and student-athletes showed their appreciation to its scholarship donors at its annual luncheon in the Don James Center. Husky student-athletes Victor Aiyewa and Danielle Lawrie presented thanks to the benefactors on behalf of all of the UW's scholarship student-athletes. Check out this great photo gallery from the event. Women's soccer coach Lesle Gallimore gave a passionate speech that outlined the tremendous responsibility each coach accepts as they makes decisions on who and when to award athletic scholarships. "As a coach I am entrusted with the task of awarding scholarships to young women whom my staff and I determine are worthy of your generosity," said Gallimore. "This is a responsibility that I do not take lightly. I have done nothing for the dollars that I am doling out. It is not my hard work that has made these scholarships possible and yet it is my duty to select people that will live up to their commitment of striving for athletic and academic excellence.  A handful of Husky athletes and coaches have been featured on the new Husky bus - a Gray Line coach which was recently wrapped in purple and gold for team travel. Women's soccer star Kate Deines joined National Softball Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie and men's basketball head coach Lorenzo Romar on one side of the bus while the other side features cross country head coach Greg Metcalf along with quarterback Jake Locker and volleyball star Jill Collymore. The men's rowing team is featured on the back of the bus. To view photos of the bus, click here. Despite not having a Washington Husky football game, there are still a ton of athletics-related activities taking place this week. ? The Husky men's soccer team hosts Cal in a huge Pac-10 game Friday night at 7 p.m. The Dawgs defeated the Bears 2-0 in Berkeley a couple of weeks ago, knocking Cal from its No. 4 national ranking! A special promotion provides 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs and 4 sodas for just $25. Call (206) 543-2200 for information. ? The Husky Ticket Office reports that approximately 64,000 tickets have been sold for the Nov. 28 Apple Cup game between rivals Washington and Washington State. Tickets are available by calling (206) 543-2200 or through GoHuskies.com. ? Huskies All-Access is scheduled for eight airings on FSN Northwest this week, starting with Wednesday's debut at 7 p.m. The show will also feature at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. that night, 12:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Thursday and at 12:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Friday. ? The nationally-ranked men's and women's cross country teams are participating in the Pac-10 Championships Saturday in Long Beach, Calif. The No. 1 ranked women will be looking to win its second-straight title while the 13th ranked men are the third-highest ranked team in the league behind No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Oregon. Check out GoHuskies.com for complete coverage. ? The UW men's and women's golf teams are in action today. The men are making a late run at the Isleworth Invitational, while the women are in the hunt at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown. ? Women's soccer is on the road at Oregon Friday night, while the volleyball team is playing at Arizona. Live coverage of those events is available on GoHuskies.com. Washington junior All-American Mel Lawrence talked with the Pac-10 last week Click here to download the podcast which begins with an interview of Stanford men's runner Jake Riley. Lawrence's segment begins right about the 11-minute mark. Former Husky runner Zachary Gussin has a couple more good reads on the cross country team. Here he has a notebook-style look back at UW's Pre-National run in Terre Haute including an update on All-American Mel Lawrence. Also worth a read is a creative description of frontrunning sophomore Kendra Schaaf from last week. The defending Pac-10 Champ has never been entirely comfortable with self-promotion, so Gussin went to her teammates to learn about the real Kendra. Here is an excerpt: "Sophomore Kendra Schaaf is often mistaken as timid or shy. Because when you ask the people who know her best, her teammates and coaches, that's one of the only words omitted when they describe her. Granted the assurance of anonymity, the adjectives ranged from "cat-crazy" to "caffeinated," "graphic" to "goofy" and "random" to "ruthless," the last of which was repeated many times. Schaaf embodies all of these attributes and dozens more." With only one home meet at the start of the season, it can be hard for local fans to catch a glimpse of the fast-moving Husky cross country teams. Luckily, Flotrack.org provides some great race coverage throughout the year, and they were out at the Pre-National Meet in Terre Haute, Indiana this past Saturday. The No. 1-ranked Husky women rolled to the victory, their ninth in a row, and the 13th-ranked UW men placed fifth out of a field of 34 D-I teams. Click here for the women's race footage and here for the men's race. The Huskies spent Friday in Terre Haute, Indiana testing out the LaVern Gibson Championship Course to get prepped for Saturday morning's Pre-National Meet. Flotrack.org was out at the course as well today, as it will be providing a live stream from the race. The Flotrack folks got to spend some time with the UW women's team and Coach Metcalf on a very momentous day for him. Here are some videos courtesy of Flotrack: Head Coach Greg Metcalf gives his take on the year thus far. Senior Katie Follett talks about the season. Sophomore Kendra Schaaf pre-race. Lastly, Coach Metcalf gets serenaded and UW trainer John Jackson sets some big goals... The UW Daily has a nice update on Washington's cross country season thus far and a look ahed to tomorrow's run at the Notre Dame Invitational. The article is written by former UW distance runner Zack Gussin so he had no trouble getting straight to the sources! Here's a brief excerpt: On Sept. 19, a highly ranked college powerhouse program competed in Seattle. Unlike the USC Trojans' football team, the reigning NCAA champion and unanimous No. 1-ranked UW women's cross-country squad lived up to its expectations. Click here to read the full story. Senior cross country runner and Mukilteo, Wash. native Kelly Spady was chosen as the Everett Herald's Athlete of the Week following his win at the Sundodger Invitational last Saturday in West Seattle. The Herald spoke with Spady about the team's early season success and which Huskies might get the best book deal. Click here to read the full interview. Check out this great article from The Seattle Times about our Husky cross country runners and their quest for a second NCAA title. The Huskies held their season opener last weekend at Lincoln Park in the Sundodger Invitational. Click here for final results and a recap from the meet. To see video highlights, click here. The Huskies travel to South Bend, Indiana for the Notre Dame Invitational on October 2nd, visit gohuskies.com for more details. NCAA.com Weighs In On The UW WomenToday NCAA.com looked ahead at the 2009 cross country campaign and speculated on five teams "with championship aspirations" on both the men's and women's sides. Naturally, the defending champion Husky women were one of the women's teams given a look-see. Here is UW's excerpt: "If you didn't know, the Huskies swept the Pac-10 Championships in unprecedented fashion and then blew away the competition at the NCAA Championships for the program's first national title last year. When the season was all said and done, five Huskies had been named All-Americans and four of them are returning this fall. They also have the reigning Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year in Greg Metcalf back for a run at title No. 2." Also previewed on the women's side are Florida, Stanford, Villanova, and West Virginia. For the complete article, click here. Track & Field News Likes Huskies To RepeatThe newest edition of the venerable Track & Field News magazine is out now and contains a look ahead at the NCAA cross country season. Under the headline "Huskies In A Pack All Their Own", T&F News lists the Dawgs as the preseason favorites to hoist the championship trophy once again this November in Terre Haute. The capsule on the Huskies reads: "At last year's nationals, Greg Metcalf's Huskies sealed their first national title with their 3-4-5 runners--Mel Lawrence, Katie Follett & Amanda Miller--only 4 seconds apart. Their 79-point total gave them a huge 52-point margin of victory." West Virginia is slotted No. 2, while the rival Oregon Ducks are ranked third. Oregon took second behind the Huskies at Pac-10's, Regionals, and NCAA's last year. The feature also takes a stab at predicting the Top-10 individual finishers at nationals, and three Huskies are forecast in the Top-10, starting with Christine Babcock at No. 3, Kendra Schaaf at No. 5, and Mel Lawrence at No. 10. The feat would seem hard to fathom for most teams but Washington's top-four all return (senior Katie Follett also has surefire Top-10 talent) and have all finished in the Top-25 at NCAA's. On the men's side, after the Top-10 team capsules, a group of "other challengers" is listed, and includes the Husky men. Six of UW's top-seven competitors from last year's NCAA meet return on the men's side, while redshirt freshman Joey Bywater and a healthy Max O'Donoghue-McDonald should greatly help the men earn a third Top-20 finish over four years. The official USTFCCCA preseason rankings are still a few weeks away on September 16. Husky Harriers Report For Duty
The Washington women were the talk of the running world last season, as they won every race with ease and captured the national championship. With their top four runners back and five of the top-seven, the women have the potential to be even better, while the men also bring back four of their top-five runners from NCAA's last year where they placed 18th. But Terre Haute and NCAA's are still many weeks and miles away, and first things first, it was time to fill out paperwork, which the athletes did before freshmen head shots and physicals for all. A team dinner was set for 5 p.m. in the Don James Center. Schaaf And Campbell Impress In CanadaFreshman phenom Kendra Schaaf showed she's in fine form despite redshirting the track season this year as the Craven, Saskatchewan native took second in the 5,000-meter run at the Canadian Track & Field Championships last night. Schaaf lowered her PR to 15:52.74, finishing just behind Tara Quinn-Smith who won in 15:50.35. Quinn-Smith has won multiple Canada national titles in the 10k and marathon and is 10 years older than Schaaf. Third-place went to Danette Doetzel, who won the 10,000-meters at the NCAA Chamiponships earlier this month running for Providence. Fellow Canadian Anita Campbell (Vancouver, B.C.) was sixth in the same 5k final, running 16:21.17. Campbell just earned her first track All-American at the NCAA Championships as she placed third in the 10,000-meter final won by Doetzel. Husky pole vaulter Ryan Vu, also a Canadian native, will compete in the prelims today. The meet runs through Sunday at the Varsity Centre at the University of Toronto. UW National ChampionshipsWith the UW softball team winning the 2009 national championship last night, the question has come up about Washington's officially recognized NCAA championships. Here is a quick list:
2009 Softball 2008 Women's Cross Country 2005 Women's Volleyball 2001 Women's Rowing 1998 Women's Rowing 1997 Women's Rowing Other National Championships
1991 Football (coaches' poll and others) 1960 Football (Helms) 2007 Men's Rowing (IRA ... Intercollegiate Rowing Association) 1997 Men's Rowing (IRA) 1984 Men's Rowing (Cincinnati National Championships ... from 1983-94, this was the national title regatta) 1970 Men's Rowing (IRA) 1950 Men's Rowing (IRA) 1948 Men's Rowing (IRA) 1941 Men's Rowing (IRA) 1940 Men's Rowing (IRA) 1937 Men's Rowing (IRA) 1936 Men's Rowing (IRA) 1926 Men's Rowing (IRA) 1923 Men's Rowing (IRA) (women's rowing didn't become an NCAA sport until 1997 ... the NCRC regatta was the recognized national regatta before 1997) 1988 Women's Rowing (NCRC ... National Collegiate Rowing Championships) 1987 Women's Rowing (NCRC) 1985 Women's Rowing (NCRC) 1984 Women's Rowing (NCRC) 1983 Women's Rowing (NCRC) 1982 Women's Rowing (NCRC) 1981 Women's Rowing (NCRC)
Also, the UW is on track to have an excellent finish, perhaps the best-ever, in the annual Director's Cup standings. Here is a year-by-year look at the UW's finish in the Director's Cup.
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1,500-meters in Division-I and Division-II, respectively, this season. The pair ran the times side by side at the Mt. SAC Relays back in April in Walnut, California.
of 4:10.66 that broke the UW school record and ranks fourth in Pac-10 history. Pixler meanwhile leads D-II in the 800m, 1,500m, and 5,000m. After Mt. SAC, the two ran a cool down together and started talking for really the first time, despite Pixler being a frequent competitor at the Dempsey during the indoor season.
2007 of 9:44.96. Flood topped her own teammate, Ashlie Decker, by nine seconds for the win.
.07, while Krinik posted a 1:50.16 for the victory. Curtis also doubled back and won the 3200-meter run in 10:31.24.
e lowered her mile times in every outing, eveutally clocking 4:47.90 at the UW Final Qualifier which was less than a second off the NCAA Provisional qualifying mark.
hampionships wrapped up in the Dempsey, approximately one hundred members of the extended UW track family gathered for a reunion in the Conibear Shellhouse.
"When I was on my recruiting trip here, I had a great time with the team, but just knowing that these (coaches) were here and fired up about track, and supporting their athletes, I've never felt that kind of love from anyone," said Taiwo. "I knew I wanted to compete for these guys because I know they want me to be the best and they're going to help me get there."
m selection in cross country and led the men's cross country team to NCAA's in 2003 and 2005. Mandi earned a degree in engineering in 2006, but when Northwest University was seeking a head coach for track and cross country, he chose to stick with his passion. Only 26, Mandi is now heading the NAIA track program. Larry Hendry of the Everett Herald profiles the great response Mandi has received and the great experience he can impart on his student-athletes.
as part of the conference's Pac-10 Championships preview podcast. Lawrence, the Pac-10 Cross Country runner-up last year 
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