UW women run to NCAA title
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Washington women’s cross country capped off an unbeaten season by winning the first NCAA championship in program history at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course.
Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech won her third straight women’s title.
Washington put five runners in the top 40, led by freshman stars Christine Babcock and Kendra Schaaf. The Huskies overcame second-ranked Oregon for the third race in a row, posting 79 points while Oregon came in with 131 for second place. Florida State took third with 163, West Virginia was fourth with 198, and Princeton took fifth with 220.
Oregon’s Galen Rupp overtook Liberty’s Sam Chelanga to win the men’s NCAA cross-country title and the Ducks grabbed their second consecutive championship.
The Washington men took 18th.
The UW women collected five NCAA All-America honors, which go to top-40 finishers. Babcock led the Huskies in seventh place, finishing the 6,000-meter race in 20-minutes, 1.7-seconds. Schaaf, the Pac-10 champion, was close behind in 12th overall in 20:17.3. Sophomore Mel Lawrence was 25th in 20:32.3 and junior Katie Follett finished 26th in 20:32.5, earning her second-consecutive cross country All-America honor. Senior Amanda Miller placed 34th in 20:37.0.
The women’s cross country squad joins football, men’s and women’s crew, and volleyball as national champions at Washington.
Rupp, a member of the U.S. Olympic team in the 10,000 meters this summer, won in 29:3.2 –about 20 seconds better than his runner-up time in the 2007 championship race.
Iona was runner-up to Oregon for the men’s title for the second straight year.
Paul Limpf of the Eastern Washington University men’s cross country team placed 73rd with a time of 30:39.3.
“I think I did all right,” Limpf said. “I was hoping for a little better finish, but last year I wasn’t even here or even close. So I feel really excited.”
The only other Big Sky Conference team to compete at the NCAA Championships was Northern Arizona, which finished sixth as a team.