MEET RECAP: Washington Invitational

SEATTLE, Wash. — The Washington Invitational capped a busy weekend in collegiate cross country.

We saw two ranked women’s teams take the course first (No. 4 Oregon and No. 12 Washington), as well as one team that received votes in the most recent poll (Harvard).

Then the men raced on the grass and No. 3 Oregon took on No. 21 Washington, No. 24 Washington State and No. 29 Colorado State.

No. 12 Washington Cruises Behind Prouse

RESULTS

Washington’s Charlotte Prouse wasn’t going to be caught Saturday afternoon.

Prouse took off from the gun and opened up a 35-second lead by 5K. When she crossed the finish line in 19:36 to capture the individual title by six seconds over Oregon’s Katie Rainsberger, the only question was whether or not the Huskies would do enough behind her to win the team title.

As it turns out, Washington did.

The Huskies put six runners in the top-9 and rolled to a statement victory. Washington scored just 24 points (1-3-5-7-8) to top both the fourth-ranked Ducks (57 points) and RV Harvard (78 points).

If it weren’t for Rainsberger, Harvard’s Courtney Smith and Eastern Washington’s Sarah Reiter, the Huskies would have swept the meet clean. Washington ran well up front with Amy-Eloise Neale, Katie Knight, Kailyn Neal, Nicole Zielinski and Anna Maxwell backing up Prouse.

Harvard’s Lisa Tertsch was the only other runner not mentioned yet in the top-10. She finished 10th.

Cheserek Leads No. 3 Oregon To Team Title

RESULTS

Oregon unleashed its top runners Saturday and that included the season debut of Edward Cheserek.

For the second year in a row, Cheserek broke the field late and cruised to an individual win. Cheserek’s crossed the finish line in 23:06.30, nine seconds faster than his winning time last year (23:15.4) and less than seven seconds off the course record.

Behind Cheserek’s victory, the third-ranked Ducks cruised to the team title over No. 29 Colorado State and No. 21 Washington. Oregon scored 26 points as Sam Prakel (3rd), Matthew Maton (4th), Tanner Anderson (6th) and Blake Haney (12th) all chipped in.

The Rams finished a close runner-up with 39 points. Colorado State’s Jerrell Mock and Jefferson Abbey, one of the best one-two punches in collegiate XC, were less of a duo than normal as Mock finished second (19 seconds behind Cheserek) and Abbey took 10th. Grant Fischer (7th) and Eric Homer (9th) split the difference between them.

The Huskies ran well up front early, but faded down the stretch. Washington was led by Colby Gilbert in 5th and Johnathan Stevens in 9th.