Women Impress Again With Pre-Nationals Second

MADISON, Wisc. – It wasn’t a win, but it was perhaps even more impressive of a performance for the Husky women’s cross country team today. In their second run of the season at the Thomas Zimmer Championships Course, the third-ranked Huskies finished second in the Pre-Nationals meet, in the process beating out No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 4 Notre Dame, and No. 5 NC State, finishing behind only No. 2 BYU.
 
Washington had won the Wisconsin Invitational in its last race three weeks ago, but while that was another loaded field, it did not feature the top-three teams in the country. Pre-Nationals had all of the top-five squads on hand, including the Dawgs. BYU took the top spot, but the Huskies proved that they are a legitimate trophy contender if they continue their current path to the NCAA Championships next month.
 
NCAAs would be a third run in Madison, but before then the Huskies will head to the Big Ten Championships and the West Regional Championships over the next few weeks.
 
The 13th-ranked Husky men’s team held back its top-four finishers from the Wisconsin Invite and five of its top-seven, letting several younger Dawgs gain some experience. The men’s team finished 24th overall, still defeating three ranked squads despite the inexperienced lineup today.
 
The women scored 157 points for second behind BYU’s 105 points. No. 1 Northern Arizona was third with 166. West Virginia was fourth with 207, fourth-ranked Notre Dame was fifth with 216, 17th-ranked New Mexico got up for sixth with 236, and 5th-ranked NC State was seventh with 293. There were 33 total teams, and 18 of them came in ranked in the top-30 of the coaches poll.

The Dawg Pack coming across the line.

After Chloe’s 16th-place finish, the 2-6 Huskies were within 15 seconds of each other.

1??6?? Foerster
2??8?? Weir
3??0?? Stiles
4??1?? David-Smith
4??2?? O’Sullivan
5??1?? Maatoug#GoHuskies ?? Runnerspace pic.twitter.com/DFC1Im6Nha

— Washington Track & Field and Cross Country (@UWTrack) October 19, 2024

 
Director Maurica Powell said, “The women were great. Our top-five from Nuttycombe all improved between 15 and 50 seconds on the same course with similar conditions, and they managed the chaos of the bigger field really well. I thought attitude and effort were on point today across the board. We were tough and competitive and moved up the…