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STILLWATER, Okla. – The 2022 season opened up for Washington Cross Country at the crack of dawn this morning in Stillwater, Okla. Eight runners made their official cross country debuts for the Dawgs today, as the teams got a look at the course where they expect to run again in November for nationals.
The Cowboy Jamboree kicked off Washington’s season at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course, which is the site of the NCAA Championships in November. Today, the UW men were focused on running together while the women’s team held out several veterans, primarily running women who had never raced on the OSU course, including three true freshmen.
The women stepped to the line first at 7:45 a.m. local time. Freshmen Sophia Nordenholz, Chloe Foerster, and Ella Borsheim all had strong first collegiate runs today along with redshirt freshman Kirstie Rae, but it was senior Anna Gibson who led the squad in her first time running in Stillwater.
Gibson ran the hilly 6,000-meters in 20:46 today. Sophomore Sophie O’Sullivan also had a top-40 finish, placing 37th in 21:09. Then it was Nordenholz in 43rd and Foerster in 52nd getting points for the team in their debuts. Andrea Markezich, the only Husky racing today who had run the course at 2021 spring nationals, was fifth across the line in 79th-place in 21:38. Right behind her was Borsheim in 82nd-place, while Rae finished her first road trip in 159th-place out of a field of 223.
The women finished eighth overall with 217 points, placing ahead of 9th-ranked Arkansas and 12th-ranekd Michigan, 17th-ranked Ole Miss and 20th-ranked Harvard. The Dawgs were also not far off the pace of third-ranked Colorado and fifth-ranked Stanford, which scored 155 and 171 points, respectively. Washington did not run several top returners including Haley Herberg, Madison Heisterman, and Naomi Smith.
“I’m very happy with how we competed today,” said Director Maurica Powell on her young women’s squad. “We beat a lot of good teams without anything like our full lineup. The women who lined up today ran great and it’s a great step in the right direction.”
The men’s race saw a group of five to six Huskies running together for the majority…
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