Both Husky Squads Go Top-Five At Regionals

Friday, November 14

Stanford, CA

11:00 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Regionals

Photo by: Washington Athletics

November 14, 2014 | Cross Country

By: Washington Athletics

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PALO ALTO, Calif. – With a pair of top-five finishes at the West Regional Championships this afternoon at the Stanford Golf Course, both Husky cross country teams believe they have done enough to earn a spot at the NCAA Championships next weekend in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Huskies will have to wait until 12 noon tomorrow for the official announcement from the NCAA, but projections of the field put the Huskies among the 31 men's and women's squads moving on.

The 11^th-ranked Husky men's team finished fifth overall, while the 15^th-ranked women's team took fourth. Only the top-two team finishers automatically advance to NCAAs, so UW will be looking for at-large bids which are based on a combination of Regional results and performance through the season.

Once again the Huskies were led by senior Aaron Nelson on the men's side and junior Maddie Meyers on the women's side. They posted matching seventh-place finishes. Also landing in the top-25 to earn All-West Region honors was freshman Anna Maxwell (15^th) and junior Eleanor Fulton (25^th) on the women's side and junior Izaic Yorks (24^th) on the men's side.

Head Coach Greg Metcalf was confident that both squads would make the cut for the NCAA meet on Nov. 22. It would be the first time since 2009 that both UW teams qualified. “I thought both of our teams did exactly what they needed to do to get to the show,” he said. “Both teams ran better over the second half of the race. They closed incredibly well. The men especially, the goal was to run as a group at the halfway point and build from there.”

The women were up first, looking to qualify for an eighth straight NCAAs. Meyers and Maxwell were up near the front throughout, but the Huskies got some strong late moves from Fulton, freshman Anastasia Kosykh, and sophomore Kaylee Flanagan to move past Pac-12 rivals UCLA and Cal and up into fourth.

The No. 3 Oregon women got the win with 88 points, then No. 10 Stanford tied for second with No. 25 Boise State, the surprise of the day, with 103 points. Washington was fourth with 131, finishing well ahead of No. 27 UCLA in fifth. The Husky women have finished in the top-five at Regionals for 26 straight years, with 34 teams currently in the region.

Meyers finished the 6k race in 20:17, with a gap of 10 seconds behind her to eighth-place. Maxwell's excellent rookie season continued with a 15^th-place finish in 20:41. Fulton climbed from 48^th at the last split up to 25^th, just breaking 21-minutes at 20:59. Kosykh, the freshman from Sammamish, again scored in the top-five, as she was 41^st overall in 21:15. Flanagan moved from 66^th midway through the race to 43^rd at the finish in 21:18 to cap the scoring. Also turning in solid runs were redshirt freshman Kelly Lawson in 60^th-place and junior Erin Johnson in 69^th.

“Anna finished where we believed she was capable of finishing, but that was a fantastic effort from her,” said Metcalf. “Eleanor, Anastasia, and Kaylee, we were sort of in a dog fight, and those three ran really well over the last thousand meters. I don't think Kaylee felt great, and I think she had to dig in the second half today, so I was proud of her.”

In the men's race, as has been their pattern of late, the Huskies gradually worked their way up through the field, as the team was just ninth at the second split, with Nelson back in 26th-place. But with the longer 10k distance for the first time, the Dawgs knew to stay patient.

At the next split, the Huskies had moved up to sixth, and Nelson up to 11^th. Junior Meron Simon would also move up about 20 spots over the latter stages of the race, and Yorks would make a big climb, as he was 61^st at the second split and rose all the way up to his 24^th-place finish. Nelson earned a second-straight top-10 Regional finish, crossing the line in 29-minutes, 46-seconds. Yorks was next in 30:02, then Simon and Tyler King finished side by side in 32^nd and 33^rd in 30:12. Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Colby Gilbert closed out the top-five in 43^rd-place, running his first career 10k in 30:23.

Also running the 10k for the first time was true freshman Fred Huxham, who finished 56^th in just his second race as a Husky, and redshirt freshman Johnathan Stevens was the No. 7 Husky in 79^th-place overall in a field of 192 competitors.

Second-ranked Oregon won the team battle with 60 points, followed closely by eighth-ranked Portland with 71. No. 9 Stanford had 97 points, and 17^th-ranked UCLA grabbed fourth with 104 points, followed by the Huskies in fifth with 139.