Cross Country: Ducks Win Pac-10 Championships

Looking ahead, the Ducks will contend for NCAA Championships invitations in two weeks in the NCAA West Regional Championships at Blue Lake Park in Portland, Nov. 11th.

Photo courtesy: goducks.com

STANFORD, Calif. - The University of Oregon cross country teams enjoyed a successful start to the championship slate Saturday in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, held on the Stanford Golf Course.

Sophomore Galen Rupp won UO’s 10th individual league title in the 8K race (23:03.12) and was one of four All-Pac-10 honorees that helped the No. 7-ranked Duck men surge into the lead in the final kilometer and win with 53 points, just ahead of host No. 5 Stanford Cardinal (second, 58 points).

No. 25 Arizona followed in third place (107), ahead of Arizona State (fourth, 113), UCLA (fifth, 130), No. 26 Washington (sixth, 131), Washington State (seventh, 150) and California (eighth, 179).

In the 38th edition of the men’s individual chase, Rupp became the first Duck winner since Steve Fein (1999). UO’s five other victors include Karl Keska (1995), Colin Dalton (1991), Brad Hudson (1988), Jim Hill (1982, ’83), and Steve Prefontaine (1970, ’71 and ’73).

Rupp and four of Stanford’s top runners led the race through the opening kilometres and the Cardinal were announced to an 18-point tally after the first kilometer.

As they neared the halfway point, Rupp continued to lead with Arizona’s Robert Cheseret and Obed Mutanya, Stanford’s Nef Araia and Oregon redshirt sophomore Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott close behind, and the quintet were still together loosely in the fifth kilometer and joined by Washington’s Jeremy Mineau.

In the sixth kilometer, Rupp opened up a slight lead on Cheseret, then added to his lead in the seventh kilometer with his hardest surge of the contest, and finished with a +30-meter advantage on the Wildcat senior at the end.

“The team has been improving all season long, and we were able to take another step today. I made a little surge at 6K, then made a bigger one at 7K. Robert (Cheseret, Arizona, second place, 23:10.96) has a great kick so I didn’t want to wait too long. The course was fun to run on – it was fair, fast and also changing directions all the time so it went by quick.”

Kiptoo-Biwott (sixth, 23:28.89) also claimed a spot on the seven-man Pac-10 first team in his fourth top-two finish on the UO squad in ’06 –his first season for the Ducks after he redshirted last fall.

“The Pac-10 has a lot of great runners, so I gave it all I had today to help the team in whatever way I could,” Kiptoo-Biwott said. “The footing was soft and fast, so that made it easier to focus on running fast. This was my first championship race in a while, so it was good to be back, and part of such a great team. During the race, it was great to be next to Galen up front, and he encouraged me several times and that really helped.”

Close behind, Duck freshman Diego Mercado (ninth, 23:38.08) and senior Patrick Werhane (12th, 23:45.26) earned spots on the all-league second team. For Werhane, it was his second straight honor after he finished 13th in 2005.

Other Duck men’s finishers included juniors Michael McGrath (26th, 24:21.42), Carlos Trujillo (28th, 24:24.23) and Chris Winter (32nd, 24:30.1), freshmen Isaac Stoutenburgh (37th, 24:38.31) and Kenny Klotz (42nd, 24:45.42) and graduate student Ben Stern (45th, 24:49.89).

Four of UO’s 10 runners Saturday also competed last year in the Pac-10 finale – a group that included Werhane (13th), Winter, (23rd), McGrath (35th) and Trujillo (36th) - while Werhane also ran in 2004 (25th) and ’03 (67th) and Winter raced in ’04 (39th).

Overall in the individual race, the two-time defending champion Cheseret followed in second place seven seconds back (23:10.96), ahead of Araia (third, 23:15.43) and Arizona State senior Aaron Aguayo (fourth, 23:20.40).

Team-wise, the Men of Oregon were still behind Stanford by 3 points at the sixth kilometer and one point at the seventh kilometer before they came back to win their 14th league title ever and first since 1995. Other previous titles came in 1969, ’70, ’73, ’76, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’82, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’92 and ’95.

“I knew that this team had great talent,” Oregon director of track and field and cross country Vin Lananna said, “but I didn’t know it would come together so quickly. Stanford is a great team and program, and the Pac-10 Conference race always has a great field. We still have things we can improve on, but our men deserve credit for showing a lot of heart and courage today. We’re looking forward to building off this at regionals because there will be an even better field there.”

Earlier in the morning under sunny, 68 degree skies, the Duck women took fourth place as a team and were led in their 6K race by sophomore Zoe Nelson (14th, 21:11.71) who claimed the final position on the All-Pac-10 second team.

The Kalispell, Mont., native led the Ducks for the first time this fall and the third time in her nine career races (and has also finished second on the team five more times).

“I got out a little slower than I had hoped,” Nelson said, “but I was able to move back up a little the first mile to get back with Bria (Wetsch) and Nicole (Blood), and I knew that Dana and Sarah were close by most of the race, too. Beforehand, the coaches didn’t give us as any specific instructions after the first kilometer, and that worked out well because I was able to adjust as the race unfolded. My race pace was by pretty even, and the race went by pretty fast. It didn’t feel like a 6K, even though it was, and I didn’t struggle at any point physically.”

UO’s four remaining scorers also finished top-30 Saturday and included senior Dana Buchanan (19th, 21:22.26), junior Sarah Pearson (20th, 21:25.40) and freshmen Bria Wetsch (22nd, 21:28.25) and Nicole Blood (28th, 21:42.79) – and the latter two made their collegiate debuts Satuday.

“Coming in, my goal was to finish top 20 so I was pretty happy,” Buchanan said, “also because I did better than last year. I didn’t go out as fast the first mile, but I moved up well without having to make any big surges. There was a stretch on the back part of the course where I fell asleep a little, partly since I was left between two packs. At the end, I was able to make up some ground on other runners. It was fairly flat, and I had saved some energy for the end. The downhill in the last section really helped, too.”

Other Duck entries Saturday included sophomore Rebekah Noble (42nd, 22:03.49), freshmen Amanda Stopa (56th, 22:26.45) and Lauren Zaludek (60th, 22:33.95) and redshirt junior Liisa Heinonen (71st, 22:49.20).

Only three of UO’s nine entries Saturday had competed in the Pac-10 Championships before – the trio of Buchanan (18th in ’05), Pearson (18th in ’05, 47th in ’04) and Noble (59th in ’05).

“Today was a nice confidence booster,” Pearson said, “and I felt really good. As I get more experienced, I’m getting more confident in my abilities. I was committed to racing a certain race plan, no matter how I felt. Little things that might rattle me in the past – things like having trouble sleeping last night or being too far back in the beginning of the race – didn’t really bother me today. I was probably 45th or so at 300m, but I didn’t stress and by the mile mark I had moved back into the top 20. I was able to maintain contact with a lot of my teammates the whole way, and I especially liked being able to run with Bria and Nicole on the back part of the course. They went out a little harder and maybe weren’t feeling quite as good then, so I tried to say some reassuring words. As I focused on them, I paid less attention to how I felt. At the end, there was a downhill in the last mile, so I was able to use that to catch up to Dana, and we pushed each other to the finish.”

Overall in the individual 6K results, Stanford swept the top four places courtesy of junior Arianna Lambie (first, 20:15.09), seniors Kathleen Trotter (second, 20:18.31) and Amanda Trotter (third, 20:18.37) and junior Teresa McWalters (fourth, 20:25.05).

In the final women’s team standings, No. 1 Stanford (first, 22) won the 21st edition of the event and edged the field by 29 points, and was followed by No. 8 Arizona State (second, 51), Washington (third, 96), Oregon (fourth, 103), UCLA (fifth, 121), Washington State (sixth, 156), Arizona (seventh, 206), Oregon State (eighth, 217), California (ninth, 260) and USC (10th, 323).

“Our women had a great performance,” Lananna said, “in reality this was more like the beginning of our season since we added some key people into the lineup for the first time. We should continue to improve from here, and we need to. We have two weeks until regionals to continue to make progress and try to get to nationals.”

Also on Saturday in nearby San Rafael, Calif., Duck sophomore Duke Wasteney won the 11th annual John Lawson Tamalpa Challenge (22:18) on a +4-mile course at an area park, and hosted by the USA Track and Field Pacific Association. Post-collegians Marzuke Stevens (second, 22:19) and Richie Boulet (third, 22:37) rounded out the top three overall.

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