Huskies Look For Finishing Kick At NCAAs
2020-21 NCAA Cross Country Championships
Monday, Mar. 15, 2021
Stillwater, Okla. | OSU Cross Country Course
Women's Race: 9:50 a.m. Pacific
Men's Race: 10:20 a.m. Pacific
SEATTLE – A cross county season unlike any other comes to a close on Monday with both Husky men's and women's squads lining up to chase some hardware over the OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The timing of the meet is much different, and comes just two days after the conclusion of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, which featured a few Huskies who will now be back in cross country mode. But the meet itself looks familiar, with 31 teams per gender all lined up to settle everything with one more race.
Both the women's 6,000-meter race and the men's 10,000-meter race will be televised live, commercial-free, on ESPNU. The women's race goes first at 9:50 a.m. Pacific time followed by the men at 10:20 a.m. Pacific.
Washington is one of 17 programs to have qualified both its men's and women's teams to the national meet. The Huskies go into the race ranked No. 10 on the men's side and No. 12 on the women's side.
The Dawgs sewed up their spots with matching third-place finishes at the Pac-12 Championships back on Mar. 5 at Chambers Creek Park in University Place, Wash. That day saw Haley Herberg get an upset wire-to-wire win in the women's race while the men had Isaac Green (7th) and Luke Houser (10th) post top-10 finishes.
The women have needed several new runners to step up this season to continue their string of 14-straight NCAA Championship appearances. Just three of the seven women who raced at the 2019 NCAA Championship are back this year: Herberg, Camila David-Smith, and Allie Schadler.
Adding to those three veterans are freshman Naomi Smith, second for UW at Pac-12s in 14th-place; sophomore Madison Heisterman who was 21st at Pac-12s and ran on the Husky DMR on Saturday at NCAAs; sophomore Andrea Markezich, coming off a strong 23rd-place Pac-12 finish; junior Kelly Makin, another NCAA DMR competitor; and Hannah Waskom, 34th at Pac-12s.
Washington's men are making a fourth-straight appearance and sixth in seven years. As with the women, three Dawgs return from the 2019 NCAA run: Isaac Green, Alex Slenning, and Tibebu Proctor. In 2019, those three finished close together, with Slenning at 104, Proctor at 106, and Green at 117.
Getting their first taste of the NCAA XC experience will be redshirt freshmen Houser, Joe Waskom, true freshman Leo Daschbach, and junior Isaac Mohn. Daschbach made a terrific collegiate debut at the Pac-12 meet as he finished 12th overall, third on the squad, and Waskom is coming off a 20th-place finish at his first Pac-12 Championships. Mohn was also a career-best 30th at Pac-12s.