Positive Pac-12s As Men Take Third, Women Fifth

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Led by top-10 finishes from Brian Fay on the men’s side and Andrea Markezich on the women’s side, the Husky cross country teams each took steps forward today at the Pac-12 Championships with their best collective races of the season. The 20th-ranked men placed third for the third-straight season, while the 19th-ranked women were fifth, just one point out of fourth and eight points out of third.
 
Racing mostly over dirt trails at the UC Riverside Agricultural Operations Course, the Huskies ran aggressively on both sides and built some momentum going into the NCAA West Regional Championships in two weeks that UW will be hosting at University Place, Wash.
 
In the women’s race, the 19th-ranked Huskies came within a handful of points of knocking off a couple highly-ranked rivals, but were still encouraged by a fifth-place finish, scoring 94 points. Ninth-ranked Stanford was just one point ahead of the Huskies with 93 points, and 12th-ranked Oregon was third with 86 points, just eight points ahead of the Dawgs. 11th-ranked Colorado and 10th-ranked Utah tied with 66 points, with the Buffs winning the tiebreak.

Tremendous career-best finish by Andrea Markezich as she leads the Dawgs with an 8th-place finish!! ????

Sophie O’Sullivan also gets into All-Pac-12 position!#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/XcBz9YkfIK

— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) October 28, 2022

 
“We were solid today,” said Maurica Powell, Director of Track & Field and Cross Country. “We had a ton of improvement in two weeks. Our number one didn’t score for us today, and we were still way improved from two weeks ago.”
 
Markezich, who had finished 23rd at both of her prior two Pac-12 Championships, broke into the top-10 today and led the Huskies for the first time ever. She covered the 6,000-meters in 19:37 for eighth. Sophie O’Sullivan also had a great day, placing 13th in 19:41. O’Sullivan was 31st a year ago.
 
Haley Herberg raced for the first time this season and placed 21st today in 19:57. Freshman Ella Borsheim had her best run yet this fall, placing 25th as the No. 4 scorer in 20-minutes flat. Capping the scoring was Madison Heisterman in 27th in 20:02. Right behind her was Naomi Smith in 29th in 20:03. Freshman Sophia Nordenholz was 36th in 20:13. Anna Gibson, who led UW at the first two races, had an off day and was 37th in 20:13. Chloe Foerster placed 44th and Carley…