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NCAA Cross-Country - Washington Women Win West Regional Meet With a Stunning 3-4-5-6-7 Finish

By Ed Bagley

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 22Dec2008 Word count: 570 Viewed: 111 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

After winning the Pac 10 Cross-Country Championship with an unprecedented 1-2-3-4-5 perfect score of 15, the University of Washington's women runners ran away with the 2008 NCAA West Regional Championship with a 3-4-5-6-7 finish at Stanford University's course.

Washington's final score of 25 beat Oregon's runner-up score of 62. Finishing last was Hawaii with a score of 934. Making the victory even more impressive is the fact that their Pac 10 title came against 10 teams while the West Regional title came against 30 teams and 206 runners.

The Huskies 3-4-5-6-7 finish in the prestigious West Regional meet is one of the finest examples of team running ever at the NCAA level. The Pac 10 and West Regional double victories by the Washington women in championship competition is evidence of why they are ranked No. 1 in the country among 327 teams.

Leading the way for the Huskies was freshman Christine Babcock, who finished 3rd in 20:02.25. Sophomore Mel Lawrence was 4th in 20:03.21, junior Katie Follett was 5th in 20:07.90, senior Anita Campbell was 6th in 20:12.08, and senior Amanda Miller was 7th in 20:13.04.

The spread between Washington's first and last scoring runner was less than 11 seconds over the 6,000-meter course (3.72 miles), and the average time among the 5 scorers was 20:07.70. The Huskies' last two non-scoring runners also finished up front. Senior Michelle Turner was 15th in 20:23.58 and Sophomore Kenna Patrick was 37th in 21:12.44. Remember that there were 206 runners in the competition.

Washington's women are beyond scary good. Consider for a moment that coach Greg Metcalf rested both freshman Kendra Schaff—the Pac 10 individual champion and course record-setter when the Huskies won with a perfect score of 15—and sophomore Lauren Saylor, who finished 12th at the Pac 10 Meet.

So just how good are the Washington women? This good: Their West Regional win snapped Stanford's streak of 9-straight West Regional titles, and their Pac 10 win broke Stanford's run of 12-straight Pac 10 championships.

Oregon's Alex Kosinski won the race in 19:59.01 and teammate Nicole Blood was runner-up in 20:01.23; but it was not good enough as the Ducks' next three scoring runners finished 13th, 19th and 27th, making them a distant second to the Huskies.

U. S. Olympian Galen Rupp of Oregon ran away with the men's race in 27:41.24 for the 10,000-meter run (6.2 miles), and his teammate Shadrack Kiptto-Biwott was runner-up in 28:32.31.

The Oregon men won the title with 38 points to Stanford's 72 and Portland's 85. Every other team among the 25 was into 3 digits and way beyond. There were 172 runners.

Washington's men finished 5th with 122 points, led by senior Jeremy Mineau's 8th place finish in 29:06.29. It was Mineau's first 10K competition in 2 years. Junior Kelly Spady was 24th in 29:48.09, junior Jake Schmitt was 26th in 29:52.99, senior Jon Harding was 28th in 29:55.99, and junior Jordan Swarthout was 36th in 30:14.86.

Next up for both the Washington women and men will be the NCAA National Championship Meet on Nov. 24 hosted by Indiana State University in Terre Haute. If you think the Washington women can win the national championship, you are right. Now we will see if they will.

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