The ASU women's cross-country team came into the inaugural Pac-12 Championship Meet needing to finish in sixth place or better to continue their run towards Nationals.
With an overall finish in sixth place on Saturday, the women’s team was able to keep their dreams of competing in the NCAAs alive.
The women were once again paced by freshman Shelby Houlihan, who finished in eighth place overall in a time of 20:15. Coming into the race, Houlihan had specific goals for herself and was excited to see them fulfilled.
“My goal was to get top-ten and first freshman and I got both of my goals, so I'm excited about it,” Houlihan said.
Women's coach Ryan Cole was ecstatic after learning of his team's sixth-place finish, which placed over No. 10 California.
“I'm pleased that our girls keep fighting,” Cole said. “We can't give up on ourselves. They fought today really well. Fighting to stay alive is all we can do.”
Sophomore Katie Flood of Washington won the women's individual championship, finishing in 19:32. No. 16 Colorado won the team title, with No. 2 Washington and No. 8 Stanford rounding out the top three.
Freshman Macy Bricks came in second for the Sun Devils, finishing in 26th place in 20:49, Another notable finish for the Sun Devil came from senior Lindsay Prescott, who finished in 35th place in 21:07.
The Sun Devils now press on to the NCAA Regional meet and hopefully punch their ticket to Nationals after that.
“We need to keep sticking to the plan,” Cole said. “We have been preparing for a long time for this portion of the season, so we need to keep following through with the plan go to the regional meet and punch our ticket to Nationals.”
The men's side had their most disappointing meet of the season Saturday, finishing in ninth place out of the nine teams that competed. The Sun Devils were battling through injury and sickness, and it showed.
“Cameron (Liston) has been battling through some sickness and so was Daniel Lovell,” men's coach Louie Quintana said. “Domenic D'Acquisto severely twisted his ankle and he wasn't able to finish. Darius (Terry) is clearly not 100 percent and that has affected our front punch.”
Nick Happe was one bright spot for the Sun Devils, whose 18th place in 23:47 impressed Quintana.
“Nick ran great,” Quintana said. “He is training with confidence. You can see it everyday. He fell twice in the race or else he probably would have finished in the top ten. We really ran into some awful circumstances out there.”
The Sun Devils still are in the running to compete in the NCAAs and are now looking to find themselves and regroup before the NCAA West Regional meet.
“We are a good team and we just laid an egg out there,” Quintana said. “It was poor execution from the coach and athlete. We all are responsible. In a million years I would not have projected that outcome. It's time to regroup. This one is, unfortunately in the books, we will all forever be linked with this result, but we have a huge race in two weeks that we must be ready for.”
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
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