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Buzzer Beater

Husky Harriers Excel in Indiana

Posted Nov. 20, 2007 at 11:46 am by Brian Miller

follett2.jpg
(Photo: www.LetsRun.com)

It's a mixed blessing for the UW distance squads to be in the toughest conference in the NCAAs. That means competing against the likes of Oregon and Stanford, making it difficult to even qualify for the national cross country championships, which were held yesterday in Terre Haute, Indiana. Coach Greg Metcalf's women's team did qualify for the meet, where their top five scoring runners ran in a tight two-minute bunch (low score wins in XC). As a result, the ladies placed eighth, the best-ever result at nationals. (Ahead were three Pac-10 teams, including first-place Stanford.) Promisingly, only one member of the seven-woman UW team is a senior. And the top two finishers will be back for next year: Soph Katie Follett (pictured wearing number 728) finished 19th, just ahead of junior Anita Campbell. They're from Colorado and Canada, respectively; while two teammates hail from Kennewick and Wenatchee. It points to the importance of recruiting in a sport that's fairly international (the women's repeat winner is a Kenyan competing for Texas Tech). Most of the UW men's squad come from local high schools, while most of the women do not. Coaches at other universities nationwide are competing with Metcalf for the top local high-school distance prospects each season. It's worth noting that on the men's side in Indiana, the best Northwest finisher was David Kinsella in eighth for U of Portland. He's from Inglemoor HS, class of 2004, one of the good ones who got away from the U-Dub.

Topics: Cross Country

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