Copyright © 2010 Ed Bagley
There is a new sign on I-5 running north to south through Western Washington and by the Montlake Campus at University of Washington, and it tells a truth that many national champions have had to come to terms with—that it is easier to win a national title than to defend it.
The continuing dominance of the Huskies' women cross-country team came to a screeching halt at the 2009 NCAA National Championship Meet. Some runners from Villanova and Florida State found their way across the finish line ahead of them as Washington, the defending national champions, found themselves in 3rd place with a score of 188.
Last year they won the title with 79 points. Villanova won this year's title with 86 points, followed by Florida State with 133, Texas Tech was 4th with 191, and Princeton 5th with 251.
Having analyzed the data from the last year's and this year's meet, it is pretty easy to understand—even with Washington's apparent continuing dominance—how the Huskies could come up a dollar short and a day late at this year's national meet.
In its simplest form, Villanova's runners finished 6-12-20-22-26. Washington finished 2-21-27-29-109. Last year's national championship team finished 5-9-19-20-26. If there is a glaring number in these 3 sets of figures, it is 109—Washington's 5th scoring runner this year.
Just how important is the 5th scoring runner on a team? It can be the difference between winning a national championship and losing a national championship.
The Huskies' 5th scorer this year was Allison Linnell, a freshman who does not have the same talent, experience and maturity as a runner as does her teammates Christine Babcock and Kendra Schaaf, who last year finished 5th and 9th in the national meet as freshmen. Linnell did not run in the West Regional Meet, and her effort in the national meet was her first at the highest level of competition.
Last year Washington's women ran 5-9-19-20-26 with a spread between their first and last scorer of 35 seconds. Their 6th runner was 32nd (sophomore Lauren Saylor) and their 7th runner was 41st (senior Anita Campbell). The spread between Washington's 1st and 7th runners last year was only 49 seconds, which is rarer than winter sunshine in a rainy state.
Last year's team was living the dream. Two newly recruited freshmen, Christine Babcock and Kendra Schaaf, became superstars overnight because of their talent, desire and maturity. This was an anomaly of gigantic proportions.
The absence of graduating seniors Amanda Miller, who finished 26th last year in 20:37, and Anita Campbell, who finished 41st in 20:51 (the 7th runner and out of the scoring), was huge. Without their influence in helping to give stability to the team and being role models for the younger runners, Washington would not have gotten the job done last year.
Remember, Amanda Miller was 26th last year and the Huskies' last scoring runner; Allison Linnell was 109th this year and the Huskies' last scoring runner.
Another huge factor was Lauren Saylor, who finished 32nd in the national meet last year in 20:44. Saylor was the 6th Husky to finish last year and did not figure in the scoring, but she did not even run in the West Regional and the National Championship meets this year. Any way you cut it, Saylor's 20:44 last year was much faster than Linnell's 21:35 time this year. The question is: What happened to Saylor? I am not close enough to the program to know. Her absence could have made a huge difference in the Husky team confidence level.
All 4 of Washington's first scorers this year ran faster than they did in the West Regional Meet that the Huskies won, but Babcock ran 41 seconds slower this year (finishing 29th rather than 5th), and Lawrence ran 6 seconds slower (finishing 27th rather than 19th). The 6,000-meter distance (3.72 miles) was the same.
Washington's best this year was Kendra Schaaf, who was the individual runner-up with a time of 19:52, only 5 seconds slower than national champion Angela Bizzarri of Illinois (19:47). Schaaf was 9th last year in 20:18. Illinois was 12th in the team standings. Oregon was 9th, led by freshman Jordan Hasay, who finished 16th in 20:24.
Husky junior Kailey Campbell, who did not compete in last year's nationals, finished 148th (7th among her teammates) at 21:54. In the West Regional Meet, Campbell was 4th in 21:00. It was not her day.
To put it all into perspective, even if Allison Linnell or Kailey Campbell had finished right behind Christine Babcock, who was 29th in 20:43, Washington still would have been way short of Villanova in its title run.
Washington coach Greg Metcalf had to have known that, despite the Huskies' runaway success until the national meet, he had a problem finding a 5th scoring runner who could duplicate the success of Babcock and Schaaf as freshmen.
As talented and young as the Washington team is, they did not get as good performances from 3 of their 4 top finishers this year as they did last year, and they lacked the depth in the 5th scoring position to repeat as national champions.
Michigan State was 26th in team competition, led by Emily MacLeod's 42nd place finish in 20:57. MacLeod won the Great Lakes Regional Meet, but the Spartans had no one to run with MacLeod, and could do no better.
In the men's run, Oklahoma State finished 7-8-11-24-77 to win the 2009 national championship with 127 points. Oregon, with sophomore Luke Puskedra's 17th-place finish in 30:02, was second at 143. Alabama was 3rd with 173.
David McNeill won the individual title in 29:07, and teammate Jordan Chipangama was 3rd, to lead Northern Arizona to a 4th place team finish. William & Mary was 5th (226), Colorado 6th (315), Wisconsin 7th (321), New Mexico and Iona tied for 8th (350), and Stanford 10th (354). Stanford's Chris Derrick was the individual runner-up in 29:15. The men's course was 10,000 meters (6.2 miles).
Washington's men were 18th, led by senior Kelly Spady's 55th-place finish in 30:36. The Michigan State men were 31st and dead last, led by Isaiah VanDoorne's 108th-place finish in 31:17. The Spartans had a terrible day.
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