Ducks Cross County Teams Ready to Run Past The Competition

Oregon was one of four Pac-10 Conference women's teams that appeared in the first poll of the season, along with No. 1 Stanford, No. 9 Arizona State and No. 21 Washington.

Photo: goducks.com

EUGENE - The University of Oregon women's cross country team was ranked 30th in the preseason collegiate national women's coaches poll released this past week.

The Ducks are one of seven top-30 ranked women's teams that will race in Eugene next week in the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Fri., September 29th - UO's first home event since 1998.

The high-caliber field features three women's teams ranked top 10 nationally - No. 5 BYU, No. 7 Duke and No. 8 Arkansas - and other ranked teams include No. 21 Washington, No. 28 Wake Forest and No. 29 Indiana. Two other teams in the race field, Butler and UCLA, also received votes.

On the men's side, the 13-team race field is equally impressive and sports six top-30 teams - No. 5 Texas, No. 7 Portland, No. 11 BYU, No. 15 Oregon, No. 19 Alabama and No. 30 American - while fellow entries Cal Poly and Washington also received preseason votes.

The women's 6,000-meter race will start at 5:20 PM at Alton Baker Park in Eugene, followed immediately by the men's 8,000m race.

Overall in the preseason women's poll, returning NCAA champion and No. 1 Stanford was followed by 2005 NCAA runner-up Colorado (second), Michigan (third), Oklahoma State (fourth) and BYU (fifth).

In the preseason men's poll, the No. 15 Duck men were one of four Pac-10 squads ranked top 20 along with No. 4 Stanford, No. 8 Arizona and No. 20 Arizona State, while Washington also received votes. Among West Region teams, No. 7 Portland also stood top 10, and Cal Poly received votes but did not rank top 30.

Overall in the opening U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) men's poll, returning NCAA men's champion Wisconsin ranked first and was followed by Arkansas (second), Colorado (third), Stanford (fourth) and Texas (fifth).

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports