It was an unfortunate ending to a great season for Vandal cross country Friday at the West Regional Championships in Seattle. No Vandal runners advanced to the NCAA National Championships, concluding the season for Idaho cross country.
On the men’s side, senior Barry Britt was the top Vandal finisher. He crossed the finish line of the 10-kilometer race in 38th place with a time of 30:27 minutes. Britt ends his cross country career as the fastest Vandal men’s runner in both 2011 and 2012.
The surprise of the meet came when freshman Will Austin-Cray crossed the finish line second for the Vandals. Cray — who is usually the fourth fastest Vandal — completed the race 139th overall in 32:28.
Redshirt freshman Colton Hastings also exceeded expectations finishing at 157th in 32:59.
Senior Jeff Osborn (161st, 33:08) and freshman Santos Vargas in (179th, 34:16) rounded out the scoring for the Idaho men’s team that finished 24th out of 26 teams with a score of 660.
On the women’s side, junior Hannah Kiser led the team with a time of 21:04 and 54th-place finish in the women’s 6-kilometer race. Kiser advanced to nationals last year with an 18th-place finish in the 2011 West Regional Championships.
Juniors Alycia Butterworth (99th, 21:37), Emily Paradis (128th, 22:00) and Holly (Stanton) Browning (131st, 22:03) finished second, third and fourth for Idaho. Freshman Halie Raudenbush crossed fifth for Idaho and 146th overall in 22:17 to complete the scoring for the Vandal women’s team that finished 20th out of 28 teams with a score of 552.
The Vandal women look forward to another great cross country season next year as they will return all of their runners from their third-consecutive WAC Championship team.
A young Vandal men’s team will return five of seven runners in 2013.
Individual honors for 2012 Vandal cross country include Kiser, who was named WAC Athlete of the Year, Idaho coach Wayne Phipps, who was named WAC Women’s Coach of the Year for the third consecutive year and a combined six individual All-WAC honors between Vandal men’s and women’s runners.
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]