Washington Opens 2009 Season as Top Women’s Division I XC Program

September 15, 2009

NEW ORLEANS (September 15, 2009) – The Washington Huskies are perched at the top of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Women's Cross Country Top 30 Preseason Coaches’ Poll, the USTFCCCA announced Tuesday. The Huskies received all 12 first-place votes and earned 360 total points in the preseason poll.

Washington, last year’s NCAA Division I Cross Country National Champions, return five of their top seven runners from last year’s championship team, four of which were USTFCCCA Cross Country All-Americans. The Huskies open their 2009 season at home this weekend in the Sundodger Invitational.

Oregon comes in at No. 2 in the women’s preseason poll having earned 344 total points. The Ducks, last year’s runner-up at the NCAA Division I Cross Country National Championships, return two USTFCCCA All-Americans in Nicole Blood and Alex Kosinski. The Ducks will be in action on October 2 at the Bill Dellinger Invitational.

Florida State is ranked third followed by West Virginia at No. 4. Florida State returns five of their top seven runners from last year’s squad that finished third overall in the team standings at the national meet. The Seminoles are led by senior standout Susan Kuijken who finished second in the individual standings at the national meet in 2008.

West Virginia finished fourth in the team standings at the national meet in 2008 but return all seven runners from last year’s team including USTFCCCA Cross Country All-American Keri Bland who finished tenth overall in the individual standings at the ’08 national meet.

Rounding out the women’s preseason top 30 at No. 5 is Villanova, the 2008 Big East Conference Cross Country Champions. Villanova loses only one senior from last year’s team (Francis Koons) that finished sixth overall at the NCAA cross country championships.

To view the complete 2009 USTFCCCA Division I Women’s Cross Country Preseason Top 30, click here.

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#4	Mike Mather September 27 at 7:34am Now that the dust has settled and many schools have their first meets under their belts, we find Laurynne Chetelat has left Stanford for UC Berkeley (still just a rumor), Anna Sperry (Semi Valley HS, CA) has moved from BYU to Louie Quintana's program at Az State. Christy Adamyk (Glendora HS, CA) left Duke for UC Riverside, now running with Chad Hall. Last year Brandon Bethke (El Toro, CA) left Wisconsin also for Az State, Whitney Blue (Costa Mesa, CA) left Az State for UCLA, Tommy Gruenewald (Fayetteville-Manlius HS, NY) left Stanford for BYU. Hay, for whatever reason, it happens. reply
#3	Mike Mather September 23 at 10:18pm obvious said: “yea, your lean towards oregon does NOT prove to be biased at all. your entire post is about oregon, so you must be fan or somehow related to Oregon. the truth lies in washington, they will win” Well, there is a bit about Stanford in there too but I would like to feel this will be a tighter championship race than last year's PAC-10 sweep by Washington. I feel it will be a much more mixed finish this year. And the beauty of this season is the PAC-10 Championship will be down here near Long Beach on a golf course off the 405! Just a couple hours drive for me. There should be a big turnout for the California runners on all of the teams. Washington has a fantastic distance squad, but Oregon has as good a squad plus nearly the best track program in the country, men & women 2nd by only a handful of points this year. That, to me, is an accomplishment any school could be proud of. Yes, I'm an Oregon fan. reply
#2	Obvious September 23 at 8:34pm yea, your lean towards oregon does NOT prove to be biased at all. your entire post is about oregon, so you must be fan or somehow related to Oregon. the truth lies in washington, they will win reply
#1	Mike Mather September 20 at 10:33pm I'm leaning toward Oregon women at #1 this year. On the Stanford team, Anne St Geme is running this season. She's been out of the loop for over 2 years so she may look more like a freshman early on, but just wait until the training kicks in. And tomorrow is 9/21, ten days after 9/11. I guess that's why I can't get the number out of my head. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jordan! Still up at "running camp" it may come down to AJ baking you a cake. That would be a memorable birthday present in itself. reply