University of Washington
Washington Invitational
Washington Invite A Hit As Dawgs Run Well
October 04, 2014 | Cross Country
Women's Results | Men's Results
Flotrack Interviews: Coach Metcalf | Maddie Meyers | Aaron Nelson
SEATTLE – For the inaugural Washington Invitational, the Huskies put together one of the best fields to be found in the country this year, and hosted an event worthy of the teams in attendance. Fans saw Jefferson Park Golf Course turned into a perfect setting for cross country on a warm fall day, and the Huskies took a step in the right direction on both the men's and women's sides.
This was the third race Washington has hosted at Jefferson Park, and the first regular season invitational. UW previously hosted the 2010 Pac-10 Championships and the 2012 West Regional Championships at the course. The bells and whistles included a large video board above the finish line for spectators to keep track of the runners as they covered the 6,000- or 8,000-meters with running team scores every thousand meters.
Two weeks removed from their wins at the Sundodger Invitational, junior Maddie Meyers and senior Aaron Nelson again proved themselves against talented fields, as Meyers placed third in the women's race and Nelson worked his way up from around 25th to finish fifth in the men's race. The Husky women took third behind third-ranked Oregon and fourth-ranked Stanford, while the men placed sixth, but ahead of three top-10 teams.
“We had teams who came from all over the country to run a cross country meet, and first and foremost our staff did a great job, and we put on a great meet today,” said Head Coach Greg Metcalf. “So when you put on a great meet obviously you want your teams to run well. For Maddie that was just a fantastic effort on a bigger stage than last time. She's making progress, she's got great momentum, and the goal is to keep it rolling. Aaron was very impressive once again. He was patient and he ran strong through the middle, and walked away feeling that it wasn't that hard for him, which is great.”
The men's race featured five of the top-10 teams in the current national rankings, and nine top-30 teams overall. Last year's NCAA runner-up, Northern Arizona, came through with the win on the men's side, scoring 62 points to finish just ahead of 21st-ranked UCLA which had 72. No. 6 Stanford was third with 92, No. 14 Virginia led early and finished fourth with 112, then No. 26 Oklahoma in fifth with 129 and the Huskies with 152. Washington was one point better than ninth-ranked Villanova, and also ahead of No. 7 Indiana and No. 5 Portland.
Nelson had a conservative start but worked his way up to the top-10 about halfway through the race. The All-American from Walla Walla soon found himself all alone in sixth-place, as a lead pack of five runners had broken away. Nelson wound up picking off one more from that pack to finish fifth overall in 23-minutes, 33-seconds. Villanova's Patrick Tiernan matched the course record with a win in an even 23-minutes.
Also moving up well throughout the race was junior Izaic Yorks, who was outside the top-30 early but climbed all the way up to finish 15th in 23:46. Junior Tyler King was the third Husky in 24:20, and junior Meron Simon was fourth in 45th-place in 24:31. Redshirt freshman A.J. Yarnall was the No. 5 scorer, finishing 49th in 24:34. Redshirt freshman Colby Gilbert got out to a great start, running as high as sixth early, but the early aggression took a toll as he dropped back to finish 51st overall. Jacob Smith capped the top-seven in 56th-place in 24:48.
Third-ranked Oregon and fourth-ranked Stanford turned the women's race into a two-team battle, with the Ducks earning a close 48 to 55 victory. The Huskies were third with 119 points, getting key wins over UCLA, Portland, and a 13th-ranked Villanova team which struggled to a seventh-place finish.
Meyers, the local standout from the Northwest School, followed up her Sundodger win with another gutsy performance. She led from the get-go and then was part of a group of three runners that opened up a 100-meter lead on the rest of the field. Meyers, Elise Cranny of Stanford, and Melanie Townsend of Northern Arizona. Cranny made a final push and would win by seven second in 20:11, with Meyers taking third in 20:20.
Washington's second through fifth finishers all came across within six seconds of each other, led by sophomore Kaylee Flanagan in 26th-place in 21:01. Just a second back in 28th was junior Eleanor Fulton in her first race of the fall. Then a pair of true freshmen, Anastasia Kosykh from Sammamish, and Anna Maxwell from Felton, Calif. rounded out UW's scoring in 30th and 32nd-places, respectively.
Redshirt freshman Kelly Lawson ran 21:18 for 43rd-place and true freshman Megan Beauchene was the seventh Husky finisher in 21:32.
“Our women maximized place today, and that's the goal,” Metcalf said. “The men, I think there were a couple more spots that we could have had, but we still beat a couple of good teams. But if we're going to make it to the show in November we have to be better than we were today. Izaic was very purposeful and ran within himself. If Izaic, Meron, Tyler and Colby all hit it on the same day, we're going to be really good.”
The Huskies will now take to the road for the first time this season, traveling to the Wisconsin adidas Invitational in two weeks on Oct. 17. That will be the last race prior to the championship meet portion of the schedule.
Players Mentioned
