Oregon Makes History With Pac-10 Cross Country Championship

After the team scores were tallied, No. 1 Oregon won with 39 points for its 15 league victory in school history and second straight.

Oregon juniors Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott and Galen Rupp went 1-2 Saturday overall in the Pac-10 Championships. Photo courtesy: goducks.com

CORVALLIS, Ore. - The top-two nationally ranked Duck cross country teams savored some of their best showings ever Saturday in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, hosted by Oregon State University at at Trysting Tree Golf Course.

Under sunny, 62-degree nearly cloudless skies, the No. 1 Duck men won their 15th league title and were led by juniors Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott and Galen Rupp who nearly finished together and went 1-2 overall.

The No. 2 Oregon women claimed second place - their highest finish since 1997 - and were led by freshman Alexandra Kosinski and sophomore Nicole Blood who placed third and fourth overall.

Complete results are available in the link to the right, a photo gallery is available by clicking here.

In the men's 8,000m race, the junior duo of Kiptoo-Biwott and Rupp ran together for nearly the entire 8,000m contest, with Kiptoo-Biwott (first, 22:55) building a slight advantage in the final 70m sprint to the line to earn UO’s 11th individual title.

Rupp followed closely behind (second, 22:59), and the returning Pac-10 champion looked strong in his first contest after a late-summer appearance in the World Track and Field Championships 10,000m and a subsequent rest cycle in August and early September.

The duo escaped the 76-runner field after a 4:37 first mile and worked together most of the race on the rolling, sometimes slanted, soft, grassy terrain.

“Our team has been racing well all season, but this is the best I’ve personally felt all year, and I got a little excited at the end,” Kiptoo-Biwott said. “As a team, our training has been going great, and we felt ready and prepared to give it our all today.”

No. 15 Stanford claimed three of the next four positions to keep matters close initially, but its fourth and fifth runners were back at 17th and 24th places overall, while Oregon stacked its next four runners in the 11-14 positions.

The Ducks added four more All-Pac-10 league honorees on the second unit courtesy of junior Scott Wall (11th, 23:22), redshirt freshman A.J. Acosta (12th, 23:24),sophomore Kenny Klotz (13th, 23:25) and redshirt freshman Andrew Wheating (14th, 23:27).

Other Duck finishers included redshirt senior Carlos Trujillo (21st, (23:38), freshman Mathew Centrowitz (27th, 23:46), redshirt freshman Daniel Mercado (28th, 23:47), sophomore Diego Mercado (38th, 24:03).

Looking back at previous Pac-10 events, Trujillo had competed twice before (28th in '06, 36th in '05), while three others made their league debuts last year - Kiptoo-Biwott (sixth), Klotz, So. (42nd) and Diego Mercado (ninth in ’06). Wall also made his second Pac-10 appearance Saturday after he placed 44th in ’05.

After the team scores were tallied, No. 1 Oregon won with 39 points for its 15 league victory in school history and second straight. No. 15 Stanford, the returning race runner-up, followed in second place with 55 points.

“Our men’s team ran a smart race, especially for how young they are with four freshmen and two sophomores out there,” Oregon director of track and field Vin Lananna said. “The Pac-10 is an amazing conference, and I’ve learned that you have to run smart, especially against teams like Stanford and California who have great talent and didn’t show their cards early and made their moves in the middle.”

No. 8 California followed in third place with 70 points, ahead of No. 19 UCLA (fourth, 97), No. 25 Arizona State (fifth, 105), Washington (sixth, 162), Washington State (seventh, 166) and Arizona (eighth, 260).

In the women’s 6,000m race, the No. 2-ranked Ducks took second place with 64 points and enjoyed its highest team finish since 1997 when UO also scored runner-up honors. As a team, the Ducks with their sights set on improving on fourth-place finishes in '05 and '06 - their first pair of consecutive top-four league efforts since 1994 and '95.

Kosinski shined in her Pac-10 debut (third, 19:55) and maintained her gap behind the leaders the final mile after she ran much of the first 2/3 of the race with UO sophomore teammate Nicole Blood (fourth, 20:09).

Blood won a spirited kick down the final stretch over Arizona State’s Jenna Kingma (fifth, 20:10) and Washington’s Anita Campbell (sixth, 20:11).

Oregon freshmen Bria Wetch and Zoe Buckman added top-20 efforts in 16th and 17th places, and both ran times of 20:42. UO's scoring was rounded out by junior Zoe Nelson (24th, 20:56), and other Duck entries included sophomore Brooke Giuffre (27th, 21:01), senior Sarah Pearson (30th, 21:07), freshman Claire Michel (45th, 21:33), freshman Elizabeth Bies (49th, 21:42) and freshman Hayley Belli (64th, 22:05).

Pearson made her fourth league appearance (20th in ’06, 18th in ’05, 47th in ’04), while Nelson had placed top 20 the last two seasons (14th in ’06, 16th in ’05). Other Ducks with Pac-10 experience Saturday included Blood and Wetsch who made their collegiate debuts last year in the Stanford-hosted event (39th/34th) after missing the first half of the '06 campaign with injuries.

Overall up front, Stanford’s two-time defending individual champion Arianna Lambie (19:41) crossed the finish line just ahead of teammate Teresa McWalters (19:41), as the Cardinal duo breezed through a 5:17 opening mile, and ran the rest of the way solo soon after. Lambie became only the third league runner to win three or more titles, and trails only Arizona great Amy Skieresz who won four titles from 1995-98.

As a squad, The No. 1 ranked Cardinal staked their 13th straight women's team title and 15th win in 16 editions, after it stacked its top six runners in the top 22 overall to tally 48 points.

No. 5 Arizona State and No. 9 Washington tied for third place (68), and were followed by Washington State (fifth, 136), Arizona (sixth, 188), Oregon State (seventh, 197), USC (eighth, 215), California (ninth, 237) and UCLA (10th, 248).

The top seven finishers from each race were tabbed to the Pac-10 All-Conference First Team, and the next seven finishers were second team honorees.

Saturday's meet added another glowing chapter to the coaching career of third-year director of track and field and associate athletic director Vin Lananna.

The returning Pac-10 Men’s Coach of the Year originally staked his name on the West Coast distance running scene in his 11 seasons as the director of the Stanford program (fall 1992-spring 2003). In his 13 prior Pac-10 harrier trips, his Duck and Cardinal teams won 15 team titles and individuals claimed seven individual championships.

Looking ahead, the NCAA West Regional Championships head to the Springfield Country Club in two weeks, on Sat., Nov. 10.

The top two teams and top four individual qualifiers automatically advance to the NCAA Championships, Monday, Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, Ind. (hosted by Indiana State).

Thirteen more men’s and women’s teams will be added by the NCAA championships committed to the 31-team NCAA race fields on Sunday, Nov. 11.

Source: goducks.com

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