Aug. 28, 2012
SEATTLE - Returning six of the seven women that toed the line at the 2011 NCAA Championships and earned a second-place finish, the Husky women's cross country team was voted to the No. 2 spot heading into 2012. The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Assocation announced its national preseason polls today, with UW missing the top spot by the narrowest of margins. Washington actually received the most first-place votes in the national poll, with five, however the rival Oregon Ducks earned the top spot with four first-place votes and 345 total points. The Huskies earned 343 points overall. Defending NCAA Champion Georgetown is ranked third to start the year, with 337 points and two first-place votes, while another first place vote went to No. 4 Florida State, which earned 334 points. Last season, Oregon was fifth at nationals and Florida State was fourth. The rest of the top-10 includes No. 5 Iowa State, No. 6 Vanderbilt, No. 7 Providence, No. 8 Stanford, No. 9 Syracuse, and No. 10 Villanova. Also ranked out of the Pac-12 is No. 13 Colorado and No. 14 Arizona, making for five conference teams in the top-14. The Huskies and Iowa State are the only two teams that are returning a pair of top-25 finishers from the 2011 NCAA Championships. Leading UW will be junior Katie Flood, who was seventh at nationals in the fall and would go on to win an NCAA distance medley relay title indoors and the NCAA title at 1,500-meters outdoors on the track. Junior Megan Goethals also earned All-America honors last year with an 18th-place finish at NCAA cross, and she then was the NCAA runner-up at 5,000-meters this past spring. The Husky women's team has been a consistent presence at the top of the USTFCCCA rankings since 2008, when it achieved the No. 1 ranking for the first time en route to the NCAA title. Washington was the preseason No. 1 in 2009 before finishing third at Nationals. In 2010, the Huskies ranked third to start the year before finishing 16th. Last year they were ranked just 11th to start the year but got back on the podium with a second-place effort. UW opens its season with the UW-Seattle U Open Meet this Friday at Magnuson Park at 4 p.m. The annual Sundodger Invitational then comes up on Saturday, Sept. 15, at Lincoln Park. |
