Cross Country Year In Review

Washington's road to a pair of Top-10 finishes

By Washington Huskies

December 29^th, 2018

Sundodger For Starters

A new era opens with a controlled workout effort in Lincoln Park | RECAP

battle in beantown

The first race effort for the men results in a second-place finish in Boston | RECAP

Stanford Invitational

Katie Rainsberger and Kaitlyn Neal go top-five to lead the women in their first race | RECAP

"The top four did a really nice job working together. Allie probably was the surprise of the day for exceeding expectations. She was great. We'll add a few more kids to the lineup here over the next month and just keep trying to get better, but this was a step in the right direction." - Maurica Powell

Pre-nationals

Huskies excel in first big test at Pre-Nats, as the men take second and the women finish fifth. | RECAP

"It was a solid performance and they improved from where they were three weeks ago. They packed it up, we all ran in the front. They did a nice job and certainly ran aggressively and ran hard. Everyone's bought into the new system and everybody is running at a high level right now." - Andy Powell

pac-12 championships

The men take second for their best conference finish in 24 years led by Talon Hull's runner-up, the best individual finish ever by a Husky man. The women take fourth to stay on track for nationals. | RECAP

"We wanted to make it an extremely hard race from the beginning. We sent people out in the front to push the pace along. They all ran extremely confident and aggressively and that helped knock out some of the other teams and the team score was going back and forth between Stanford and Washington. We probably had the best spread one through five and one through seven so again that shows the depth in the best conference in the country." - Andy Powell

talon's fight to the finish

West Regionals

The Huskies march on through Regionals as the men take 2nd to auto-advance and the women take fourth to lock up an at-large bid. | RECAP

"I think it was definitely their best race so far in terms of executing really well. They were really business-like and exactly where they needed to be throughout the race. We wanted to get five in the top-35 and were able to do that." - Maurica Powell

punching the tickets

"I'm really happy with everything they've done so far, it's been a great experience, and they seem to have gotten better each day. I think they'll approach it exactly the same as they have every other meet. If they do that, they'll be successful." - Andy Powell

historic high

The men hit their highest ranking in the history of the USTFCCCA poll heading into the NCAA Championships.

ncaaxc: women's race

The women finish five spots higher than their ranking, taking ninth-place, led by All-America runs from Katie Rainsberger and Lilli Burdon, and career-best NCAA finishes from Emily Hamlin and Allie Schadler. It's the best finish fro the UW women since 2012.

"I'm pleased with the improvement from 21st-place last year and also out-performing our No. 14 ranking going into the race. More importantly, from a process perspective, I'm proud of the grit and toughness this group displayed today. They were selfless and they ran hard for each other and for the University of Washington." - Maurica Powell

ncaaxc: men's race

The men get career-best NCAA finishes from their full top-seven, including All-America honors for Tanner Anderson and Tibebu Proctor, to wind up in sixth-place. That was the second-best ever for a Husky men's team and best since 1993.

"From the beginning of the year to now, our men were the most-improved team. I think our spread one through five was just about as good as anyone's. All year we had interchangeable parts, different guys stepping up. Every time they would exceed expectations." - Andy Powell