Both Husky squads & Cougar men maintain positions in USTFCCCA coaches' poll...

NEW ORLEANS—Bothe the University of Washington (above/photo by Paul Merca) and Washington State men’s cross country squads maintained their positions in the USTFCCCA national top 30, and the Husky women’s team did likewise, as the national coaches’ poll was released Tuesday.

The Huskies, thanks to their fifth place finish in the Pac-12 championship last week, moved up one spot from the previous poll conducted two weeks ago to number 20 in the national poll, while the voters penalized the Cougars for finishing sixth at Pac-12s by dropping them to number 27.

The nation’s top five teams are Northern Arizona, BYU, Syracuse, Pac-12 champion Stanford, and Colorado.

Other Pac-12 teams ranked in the national top 30 include co-number 10 UCLA, and #13 Oregon.

Other nationally ranked teams that both the Huskies and Cougars will have to contend with at the NCAA West Regionals include #6 Portland, and #26 Boise State.

The Washington women’s team dropped three spots from the previous poll two weeks ago to number 16 despite finishing fourth in the Pac-12 championship meet.

The nation’s top five teams are Pac-12 champions Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, San Francisco, and North Carolina State.

Other nationally ranked teams from the Pac-12 include #7 Stanford, and #26 California.

Nationally ranked teams the Dawgs will have to contend with at the NCAA regionals not in the Pac-12 include San Francisco at #4, and #10 Boise State.

The top two teams from the nine NCAA regional races around the country on November 10th will automatically earn berths into the NCAA championships on November 18th in Louisville, Kentucky, while 13 other teams will be selected to fill the field based on a formula that takes into account head to head competition in key regular season meets, as well as the conference and regional meets.


400 HURDLER JORDIN ANDRADE TO LEAVE PUGET SOUND TO TRAIN IN NORTH CAROLINA...

Federal Way resident and Cape Verde Olympian Jordin Andrade (above/photo by Paul Merca) announced on his Facebook page that he will leave the Puget Sound area to train in Raleigh, North Carolina under George Williams, the head coach at St. Augustine’s University.

Williams, who was the head men’s US Olympic team coach in 2004, has worked with numerous world class hurdlers, including Bershawn Jackson, and Johnny Dutch.  

Andrade, a graduate of Bonney Lake HS, was a semi-finalist at the Rio Olympics, but did not get out of the first round at the IAAF world track & field championships in London in August in the 400 hurdles.

Andrade, who has been working with Mike Cunliffe and the Seattle Speed group since graduating from Boise State, says that he will have the opportunity to train with a group of national and world-class hurdlers, something that he didn’t have in Seattle.

NOTE:  The USTFCCCA contributed to this report.

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