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High Mileage Huskies
Three UW men push each other to go the distance on and off the track — Washington women poised for postseason
BY MARK MOSCHETTI • FOR GO HUSKIES MAGAZINE
One of them has raced nearly 180 miles in a University of Washington track uniform. Another has gone more than 160. Still another has more than 50 miles of competition in purple and gold.
The 180-miler has a pair of NCAA championships. The 160-miler and 50-miler each have a pair of Pac-12 Conference crowns, and an NCAA title. Each of those first-place finishes on the sport’s biggest stages ultimately were achieved through individual and team efforts.
But to hear Luke Houser, Joe Waskom (160), and Nathan Green (50) tell it, those achievements are the result of their combined teamwork, along with that of a dozen or so other high-mileage teammates who have helped make Washington the place to be for distance-running dominance.
“They welcomed me and invited me and pushed me to heights I would not have achieved anywhere else in the country, or in the world, I believe,” said Green. After all, he is now a junior, and a Pac-12 and NCAA champ in the 1,500 meters. “I won it as a sophomore, and that’s unheard of.
“But it’s not because the stars were aligned and everything was perfect,” added Green, who through the end of April had raced 44 times as a Husky between cross country, indoor and outdoor track. “Luke and Joe were there to encourage me the entire year. Joe was the defending national champion, and he was telling me that I was going to win, that I had just as good a chance as anybody.
“You wouldn’t get that anywhere else.”
Houser, a senior with 77 UW races — and those 180 miles under his shoes through April 30 — just finished his final indoor track season by winning his second consecutive NCAA mile championship.
“For most guys who are at the top in high school, you’re the best guy on the team by quite a bit,” he said. “You come to Washington and there are 15 guys who can do every workout with you and pull you along. It was quite a change for me hanging out with all the guys, but I think it was a great change. I feel like I was able to buy into the program and jump in with everyone, and that was a huge improvement.”
At Washington, buying into the program means buying into coach Andy Powell’s program, and the results speak for themselves.
Under Powell’s direction, Washington has won national distance titles for three straight years: Waskom’s 2022 outdoor 1,500, Green’s 2023 outdoor 1,500, and Houser’s 2023 and 2024 indoor mile. Those three were part of a group of eight Huskies who all ran a sub-four-minute mile in the same race at the 2023 UW Invitational indoor meet.
“I knew this was a capability when Andy first moved here. It was something I wanted to be a part of,” said Waskom, the 2022 Pac-12 and NCAA 1,500-meter winner who, like fellow senior Houser, had competed 77 times and 160 miles in Washington colors as the calendar turned to May. “This was always the goal: to have multiple national champions and guys who win Pac-12 titles and who have continued success and have the best distance and middle-distance program in the country.”
“We all want the best for ourselves, but we also equally want the best for each other,” Waskom added. “Every day, Andy talks about how you should do not only what’s best for you, but you should also do what’s best for everyone around you. As long as everyone is lifting each other up, you have 14 guys lifting you up.”
A Busy To-Do List, But First Things First
While the vast majority of their success has been at Washington, there have been accomplishments outside of Montlake. Waskom was a silver medalist in the 1,500 at last year’s U.S. Outdoor Championships and was a Team USA member at last year’s Worlds. Green was the U.S. junior 1,500-meter champion in 2022.
It’s no surprise that all three have this summer’s U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene circled on their calendars for June 21-24, but that’s far enough in the future that none of them are even close to thinking about it just yet.
There's more pressing business at hand now, such as leveraging the UW's recent team title at the Pac-12 Championships in Boulder. That momentum will carry them into the NCAA West Regionals May 23-25 in Fayetteville, Ark., and then the NCAA Championships June 6-8 at Hayward.
Waskom said, “One of the nice things about being at UW is we really live in the moment. I know we’ve all thought about summer plans. But the best thing about having Andy and (distance coach) Chris (Kwiatkowski) as coaches is they really just help us keep perspective on what’s in front of us.”
Last spring, the Huskies swept every men’s distance title from 800 to 10,000 meters. Along with Green’s win in the 1,500, Brian Fay took both the 5,000 and the 10,000, Sam Ellis won the 800, and Ed Trippas finished first in the 3,000 steeplechase. Fay, Ellis, and Trippas have moved on from college. Green will be the favorite to repeat in the 1,500, as his 3:34.79 was atop the conference rankings (and No. 2 nationally) heading into May. Other Huskies setting the Pac-12 pace with the championship portion of the season coming up were freshman Evan Jenkins in the 10,000 (No. 4 nationally), senior Sam Affolder in the steeplechase, senior Chandler Ault in the javelin (No. 7 nationally), and sophomore Jami Schlueter in the decathlon.
Every day, Andy talks about how you should do not only what’s best for you, but you should also do what’s best for everyone around you. As long as everyone is lifting each other up, you have 14 guys lifting you up. — Joe Waskom
“Of course, everyone wants to go back-toback,” Green said. “Like Luke said, we asked for it. If there’s a team that can defend the title, it’s our team. There’s a lot of depth in a lot of different areas. It’s really hard to come by a group that’s so well-rounded.”
While the Husky men made history last year with their conference championship — and repeated as champions in 2024 — the women made some history of their own by finishing in sole possession of third place in 2023 and fifth in 2024. They went into this year’s Pac-12s with a trio of conference leaders.
One of those is freshman pole vaulter Hana Moll. After winning the NCAA indoor title in March with a clearance of 15-1, she is the conference’s only 15-footer so far this spring, going that same height on April 17 at the Mt. SAC Relays.
In fact, Washington is the dominant force in Pac12 women’s pole vault. Senior Nastassja Campbell and junior Sara Borton tied for last year’s Pac-12 crown, then Campbell went on to finish second (and Borton sixth) at NCAAs. Moll’s twin sister Amanda is also drawing lots of attention. Hana and Amanda went 1-2 at the 2024 Pac-12 Championship in Boulder.
Senior Haley Herberg leads the conference in the 10,000. She missed the 2023 outdoor season with an injury but finished fourth in the 10,000 and sixth in the 5,000 at Pac-12s in 2022. Sophomore Chloe Foerster has been at the top of the Pac-12’s list in the 1,500.
