Beavers Finish Eighth at Pac-10 Championships

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(CORVALLIS, Ore.) - The Oregon State women’s cross country team finished eighth Saturday at the Pacific-10 Cross Country Championships at the Jefferson Golf Course in Seattle, Wash.

“Our top-five really ran well today,” Oregon State women’s cross country coach Kelly Sullivan said following the race Saturday morning. “When you have five top-25 teams in your conference you don’t have a normal conference. We finished eight last year at the Pac-10 Championships and then finished ninth at the NCAA West Regional so we’re happy with how things went.”

The Pac-10 is one of the deepest conferences when it comes to cross country. Five teams are ranked in the top-25 nationally and the national champion has come out of the Pac-10 four of the past five years with Washington winning most recently in 2008.

Sandra Martinez paced the Beavers with a time of 21:16.38 which placed her 42nd overall at the conference meet. Jennifer Macias finished just four places back in 46th place with a time of 21:27.78.

Laura Carlyle finished with a time of 21:31.86 which put her in 50th place while Abby Chesimet finished with a time of 21:53.58. Hannah Soza-Hodgkinson finished with a time of 22:07.49. Casey Masterson finished with a time of 22:14.26 and Emily LaValley finished out the scoring for the Beavers with her time of 22:18.12. Olivia Poblacion and Emily Wheeler finished with times of 22:44.57 and 22:58.34 respectively.

“With as much illness and injury that we’ve had this season, we’re looking forward to having a couple weeks off to rest and recuperate before the NCAA West Regional,” Sullivan said. Illness struck again this week and forced Natosha Buruse to be held out of the race Saturday.

Stanford won the event with 62 total points just three points ahead of runner up Arizona. Jordan Hasay from Oregon took home the individual title.

The Beavers now look forward to the NCAA Regional meet on Nov. 13 in Springfield, Ore. The teams and runners who qualify go on to compete for the national championship at the NCAA meet on Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Source: OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY