University of Oregon
NCAA Championships
Duck Harriers Race to NCAA Success
11/19/07 | Cross Country
* Complete results are available in the PDF links box to the right, and a link to photos is available here.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The top-three ranked University of Oregon's cross country teams enjoyed a historic performance Monday with a victory by the top-ranked men's team and a runner-up finish by the No. 3-ranked Duck women.
In the Men of Oregon's 33rd NCAA team appearance, junior Galen Rupp contended valiantly for the individual title and ultimately placed second (29:24) by less than five meters in the final kick behind Liberty's Josh McDougal (first, 29:23). Rupp was UO's highest finisher since Alberto Salazar placed second in 1979, while only Salazar and Duck great Steve Prefontaine had finished higher with their four NCAA titles in 1978 and 1970-71-73, respectively.
“It was a great day for Oregon,” Rupp said. “I am so excited to be a part of this team. We have such an unbelievable group of guys, and we had confidence coming in, and were so relaxed yesterday. (After I finished) It was so fun to watch the other guys come in and be able to celebrate together. We knew we needed to get in good position early and put ourselves in the mix. We told ourselves that it was different than any other race this year, and we needed to get out hard and work together.”
UO's other four scorers also earned All-America honors, and included junior Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (ninth), sophomores Diego Mercado (30th) and Kenny Klotz (37th), and redshirt freshman Daniel Mercado (41st).
The No. 1 ranked Men of Oregon led the team scoring battle from the start and ended with 85 points and celebrated their first NCAA team title since 1977. UO put its front five in the top 50 overall for the first time since 1979 when the Ducks finished second.
In their first NCAA trip since 2000, the No. 3-ranked Duck women scored 177 points, and trailed only No. 1 Stanford (145 points). UO's finish was its third-best ever besides their titles in 83 and '87, and fourth runner-up honor overall among their 25 postseason trips since their first in '75 (including AIAW Championships).
The UO women's last NCAA team appearance was in 2000 (28th) at Ames, Iowa, while their last top-10 finish was in '97 at Furman, S.C. (eighth) and last top-five effort in '95 in Ames (fifth).
Individually, sophomore Nicole Blood placed eighth overall, and ran nearly the whole race with freshman Alexandra Kosinski who placed 13th overall. The Ducks claimed multiple All-America honors for the first time since '97 when Marie Davis was ninth and Milena Glusac was 34th, while freshman Zoe Buckman (39th overall) gave UO its first top-40 trio since 1987 - the last year UO won the team title.
“The University of Oregon has a wonderful tradition in cross country, and our teams added another chapter to that storybook heritage,” Oregon director of track and field Vin Lananna said. “Before this year, we wanted to create an identity for our teams that we could build off. Anybody who finishes top 15 individually runs a fantastic race since this has all events from 1,500m on up, running together. The guys were appropriately excited but not nervous before the race. On the women's side, the women had no idea what to expect. It was nice to be up there on the (awards) stage again, and I'm very proud of our teams ? they're a great group of kids.”
The Duck men took control of their race early and had at least six runners in the top 30 overall in the first mile, and were up in the team scoring unofficially with 67 points, while No. 4 UTEP was second at that point with 179 points. At the 8,000m point, the Ducks still led with 82 points, while Iona had moved into second place with 99 points.
In the final team standings, Oregon shared the medal stand with No. 4 Iona (second, 113), No. 9 Oklahoma State (third,180), No. 6 Northern Arizona (fourth, 190). Other teams in the top 10 included No. 5 Wisconsin (fifth, 239), No. 12 Alabama (sixth, 280), No. 2 Colorado (seventh, 287), No. 17 Minnesota (eighth, 322), No. 15 Louisville (ninth, 324) and UTEP (10th, 331).
The men's race featured six West Regional teams ? No. 1 Oregon (first, ), No. 8 Portland (14th, 424), No. 22 Cal Poly (11th, 367), No. 20 California (16th, 434), No. 13 Stanford (19th, 451) and No. 30 Arizona State (26th, 401).
In the individual chase, Rupp ran among the leaders from the start, and the lead pack whittled down to Rupp, Liberty's Josh McDougal and Northern Arizona's Lopez Lomong with three kilometers to go, and Lomong starting to lose contact.
McDougal tried to surge away at the 8,000m mark and Rupp tucked into his slipstream and made a move of his own with 400m to go and gained a slight advantage, but McDougal rallied back into the lead with 200m to go and held a 3-4 meter advantage the last 60 meters to the finish line.
“(The last 2,000m) Josh did a great job of getting a little gap,” Rupp said. “I tried to take it to the line but today he was a better runner than me. I tried to keep going to my arms and gave it all I had. I might have gone a little too early, but it was a move I had to make. Coming back on him took a lot of energy. I had been behind him for awhile, and when I caught him, I tried to surge past, but he did a good job of hanging on. We took our turns with surges the last straightaway. I knew Lopez and Josh were favorites to watch out for, so I wasn't planning on taking it hard from the start. I wanted to sit back and stay relaxed as possible then work the last mile.”
Coming into the 69th edition of the NCAA men's race, Lomong and McDougal had staked positions as fellow contenders on the same course in mid-October when they run 8,000m course records of 23:03 and 22:57, respectively, that bettered McDougal's former course mark from 2006 (23:13).
Like Rupp Monday, Kiptoo-Biwott also maintained a similar final position the entire length, and ended ninth overall (29:56) for his second All-America honor in his third NCAA appearance. The third-year Duck claimed his first honor for the University of New Mexico in '04 (14th) on the same ISU course, then redshirted the '05 and also competed last year at Terre Haute (98th).
“The race went well, and I felt good overall,” Kiptoo-Biwott said. “It wasn't too fast or slow of a start and that played into my racing style. I felt fine until maybe the eighth kilometer and even then I just kept the team in my mind and ran for them. That's why I came to Oregon, so it's great to finally accomplish this. I love these guys, I love Oregon, and we've worked so hard together. I kept a good focus during the race, and was able during the first half to look around and see my teammates around me and that pumped me up.”
A trio of second-year Ducks closed out UO's scoring and ran in contact together between 20th and 40th places overall during the race. Sophomores Diego Mercado (30th, 30:27) and Kenny Klotz (37th, 30:36) scored particularly key points in the team race since they each finished one place ahead of Iona's third and fourth runners when the team race was undecided. Redshirt freshman Daniel Mercado overcame a fall in the second mile to finish just behind his teammates (41st, 30:37) and wrap up the Ducks' scoring with its lowest fifth-place NCAA finisher since Ken Martin took 40th in '79.
“I made sure the lead group didn't get away early,” Diego Mercado said, “and we went through 2:45 the first 1,000m. I was scared to go out too fast early last year, but this year I had more confidence. I tried to look ahead the second half of the race and not make any big move too early, and waited till after the hill after 6,000m and that worked out well. I stayed with the same group of guys almost the whole time between approximately 35th-45th place, and with that group we passed runners together the last couple kilometers.”
UO's other entries included redshirt freshman Andrew Acosta (146th, 31:27) and redshirt sophomore Scott Wall (19th, 32:00) ? both of who made their NCAA debuts.
The West Regional showed well on the individual front with nine top-50 placers - Rupp (second, 29:24), Portland's David Kinsella (eighth, 29:53), Kiptoo-Biwott (ninth, 29:56t), Diego Mercado (30th, 30:27), UCLA's Austin Ramos (32nd, 30:30), Cal Poly's Phillip Reid (33rd, 30:32), Klotz (37th, 30:36), Daniel Mercado (41st, 30:37) and Stanford's Nef Araia (50th, 30:42).
The No. 1 ranked Men of Oregon had ranked first in the nation since the first week of October and their varsity unit and was undefeated in its three prior appearances in the Bill Dellinger Invitational, Pac-10 Championships and NCAA West Regional. Earlier this season, they had beaten eight of the teams in the 31-team NCAA field ? No. 4 UTEP, No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 8 Portland, No. 12 Alabama, No. 13 Stanford, No. 20 California, No. 22 Cal Poly and No. 31 Ohio State.
The Ducks improved on last year's fifth-place NCAA Championships tie on the same course ? a race that featured three All-Americans ? Rupp (sixth), Kiptoo-Biwott (98th) and Diego Mercado (49th) ? and Klotz also competed in the event (186th).
On the women's side, Blood and Kosinski employed the tried and true method of racing together the first 2/3 of the race, before Blood made a move ahead and edged out three-time Pac-10 champion Arianna Lambie at the finish line by a half-second. The Duck duo charged out into the top 15 overall early and stayed in that position for the remainder.
The event, which returned to Terre Haute for the fifth time in six years, featured calm, cloudy skies, temps in the low to mid 50s and winds at most 5-7 mph. The Duck men had enjoyed several strong races on the same course in recent years with fifth-place finishes in 2004 and ?06
Stanford and UO's top-two team finishes gave the West Regional the top two teams overall for the first time since 1983 when Tom Heinonen's Oregon squad won its first crown with 95 points, three points ahead of Stanford (second, 98).
Arizona State followed in fourth place Monday with 251 points, and other regional qualifiers included No. Washington (eighth, 358) and UC Santa Barbara (19th, 449).
The Ducks rolled into Monday's finale on a postseason surge the prior three weeks.
The No. 1-ranked Duck men repeated as team champions in the Pac-10 and West Regional Championships for the first time since the 1988 and '89 seasons, and scored their first pair of Pac-10 and West Regional individual titles since Steve Fein won both in 1999. UO's Pac-10 and West Regional men's team titles stood as their 15th and sixth, respectively, and their individual titles stood as their 11th and seventh, respectively.
Rupp won the recent West Regional and finished a close second two weeks prior in his season debut behind Kiptoo-Biwott in the Pac-10 Championships, and the latter runner also led UO in its first major contest of the year, the Bill Dellinger Invitational (and second overall). The duo were Pac-10 First Team selections, and four other Ducks were Second Team picks for their top-14 Pac-10 finishes ? Wall (11th), Acosta (12th), Klotz (13th) and Wheating (14th).
On the women's side, Oregon re-established its storied NCAA tradition and pulled within 32 points of Stanford who tallied 145 points to win, just ahead of Oregon (second, 177). The Ducks narrowed the gap vs. the overwhelming meet favorite, at lest in relative terms in Monday's 255-runner field, after they had trailed the Cardinal by 16 and 39 points, respectively, in the recent Pac-10 and Regional Championships.
Blood and Kosinski gave UO its first pair of top 15 NCAA placers since 1995 when Melody Fairchild and Jenna Carlson placed ninth and 15th. The current transplant Ducks from Simi Valley and El Dorado Hills, Calif., smoothly navigated their way together and were never outside of the top 20, even at the crowded start.
“I was never out of control and I felt great,” Blood said. “At Pac-10's that pace and kind of race felt a little fast, but today I came in confident and feeling great. I wanted to be up in that lead pack early and be in a position to stay with them. My goal was to run with them, so I wanted to be in the best position from the start and not let them get away. The course was great, and the footing was awesome. I was in much better shape this year and got better with every meet. I have a lot more experience this year and a better base and fall season of training. Coming into here, I wanted to be top 10 and try to be top three as a team."
Kosinski crossed the line as the top freshman finisher, while Blood was the second sophomore finisher (and top American in her class).
“It was a fun race,” Kosinski said. “I died a little at 5,000m, but I guess it was more of a gradual death (smiling), and I was able to kick pretty well the final straightaway. I had some nervous energy coming in, but it helped to have Nicole around. She's a very smart runner, so having her there give me reassurance that I'm doing the right thing and keeps me relaxed. Coach was hoping that I could finish top 20 so I was glad to accomplish that.”
In their wake, freshman Zoe Buckman complemented her credentials as an NCAA 800m qualifier with an impressive NCAA 6,000m debut of her own (39th, 21:06) and ran much of the first 2/3 of the race with sophomore Bria Wetsch (76th, 21:24).
Senior Sarah Pearson rounded out UO's scoring in her fifth spot (103rd, 21:34), and the Ducks' other entries included junior Zoe Nelson (135th, 21:48) and sophomore Brooke Giuffre (212th, 22:35).
Overall in the team race, other team trophy recipients included No. 2 Florida State (third, 236) and No. 6 Arizona State (fourth, 251), and fellow top-10 finishers included No. 7 Michigan State (fifth, 321), No. 10 Illinois (sixth, 331), No. 15 Northern Arizona (seventh, 357), No. 8 Washington (eighth, 358), No. 13 West Virginia (ninth, 375) and No. 20 Iowa (10th, 387).
Individually up front, Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego and Colorado's Jenny Barringer repeated their 1-2 finishes from the recent Big 12 Championships and ran times of 19:31 (course record) and 19:47, respectively. Kipyego ran away from the field early and had a 20-meter lead on the field at mile mark, and crossed the line nearly 70 meters ahead of Barringer at the end of the 6,000m contest.
The West Regional sported 10 top-50 finishers and Oregon's Blood led the way (eighth, 20:18), just ahead of Stanford's Arianna Lambie (ninth, 20:18). Others notching the distinction included Kosinski (13th, 20:34), Washington's Katie Follett (19th, 20:43) and Anita Campbell (20th, 20:43), Stanford's Lauren Centrowitz (36th, 21:00), Arizona State's Jenna Kingma (37th, 21:01), Buckman (39th, 21:06), Arizona State's Ali Kielty (42nd, 21:08) and Kari Hardt (50th, 21:12).
Coming into the meet, the Duck women had shined as one of the nation's most improved teams and scored their first NCAA team appearance since 2000 after spending parts of the last two seasons in the top 25. This year, they had beaten No. 6 Arizona State, No. 8 Washington, No. 12 Colorado State, No. 17 BYU, No. 23 Georgia and No. 26 UC Santa Barbara, and the only squad to top them this year is No. 1 Stanford.
UO's varsity unit had been led by Blood in two of her three prior races ? the Bill Dellinger Invitational (first overall) and West Regional (second) ? while she ranked second on the team and was an All-Pac-10 First Team choice in the Pac-10 Championships (fourth overall).
Kosinski had paced UO in the Pac-10 Championships (third overall) and ranked second in her two other races, the Bill Dellinger Invitational (third) and West Regional (sixth) and was the top freshman in the first two races.
Wetsch had ran in UO's top four in all five of her races this fall, including its third finisher in the Pac-10 Championships and West Regional (16th in both). In her first-ever season of cross country, Buckman progressed into the one of the nation's top newcomers, and finished third for the varsity for the first time Monday in her career. In her previous three races this fall, she was UO's fourth finisher in the Pac-10 and West Regional (17th / 21st) and '07 marks her first-ever cross country season.
On Monday, Pearson stepped into the team's fifth slot for the second straight meet (103rd, 21:34). Her previous best race of the fall came in the West Regional (27th) when she also ranked fifth on the squad and notched her best career regional placing by 10 places.
Nelson boosted the team earlier in the postseason with her second top-25 Pac-10 finish and was an All-Pac-10 Second team pick in '06, and registered a similar placing in the West Regional (33rd overall, sixth on team). Giuffre, a first-year Duck and Brown transfer, had ranked sixth on the squad in two of her previous three races ? the Pac-10 Championships (27th) and Mike Hodges Invitational (16th).
The Ducks raced Monday without redshirt freshman Keara Sammons who boosted the team with an eighth-place finish in the Bill Dellinger Invitational ? an effort that ranked her third on the squad ? but hadn't raced in the postseason due to an injury.
The No. 3-ranked Duck women had positioned themselves for Monday's team success after runner-up efforts in the Pac-10 and West Regional for the first time since 1997 and '98, respectively, while they bested five NCAA women's team qualifiers to win the Bill Dellinger Invitational at home in late September.
Glancing at the history books, the UO women added another memorable experience in their 25th postseason trip since 1975. All of UO's prior appearances in AIAW and NCAA Championships came under former UO mentor Tom Heinonen who was tabbed NCAA Coach of the Year after Duck triumphs in 1983 and '87. Under his guidance, UO added three runner-up honors in 1979, '81 and '88 and nine more top-five finishes in 1975 (fourth), '78 (fifth), '80 (fifth), '82 (third), '84 (fourth), '86 (fourth), '90 (fifth), '91 (fifth) and '95 (fifth). UO's four more top-10 efforts in 1976 (seventh), '77 (sixth), '93 (eighth) and '97 (eighth) altogether gave them 15 top-10 finishes in that span.
The Oregon men sport an equally impressive history, initiated in 1963 under the guidance of legendary coach Bill Bowerman. UO's four prior wins came under the guidance of another legendary mentor, Bill Dellinger, who guided the Ducks to four NCAA team wins (1971, '73, '74 and ?77). Overall, the two ?Bills' altogether guided UO 15 top-three finishes that included seven runner-up efforts (1963, '64, '70, '76, '78, '79, '89) and four more third-place placings (1969, '72, '83, '96). On top of that total, the Men of Oregon have scored 12 more top-10 efforts in that period and those finishes follow: fourth (1986), fifth (1990, '98, '02, ?06), sixth (1999), seventh (1988, '95), eighth (1965, ?92, '97) and 10th (1982).
Going back to the Ducks' first appearance in ?63, only Arkansas (11) and UTEP (9) have won more. Individually, thanks to three NCAA titles by Steve Prefontaine (1970-71-73) and another by Alberto Salazar (1978), only one school has won more individual titles in that period (Washington State, 7), while Kansas also staked five wins in the 1950s and another in mid-60s.
Oregon's efforts Monday added to Lananna's already impressive resume that included successful stints at Stanford and Dartmouth. In his 11 seasons with the Cardinal from the fall of 1992-spring of 2003, his men's and women's squads combined for four NCAA cross country team titles (3M, 1W), 14 medal stand, top-four team placings (8M, 6W) and 57 All-America honors (33M, 24W). In his prior stint as assistant athletic director and head coach at Dartmouth from 1980-1992, his men's cross country teams claimed six top-20 NCAA finishes ? including runner-up efforts in 1986 and '87 ? to go along with two top-20 women's placings, and 37 combined All-America honors in track and field and cross country.
In return for the two programs' success at the NCAA Championships, he was a combined five-time NCAA Coach of the Year honoree in men's and women's cross country and track and field.
He has quickly worked his magic with the UO distance squads. Last fall, the Men of Oregon scored their first pair of same season championship victories since 1989, then tied for fifth in the NCAA Championships. The Duck women took fourth in the Pac-10 Championships for their first back-to-back top-four league finishes since 1997 and '98.
Lananna's NCAA Title Run (at Stanford)
Men's Team Titles (9) ? 1995, '96, '97, '98, '99, 2000, '01, '02, ?06*
Women's Team Titles (7) ? 1994, '96, '97, '99, 2000, '01, ?02
Men's Individual Titles (3) ? 2000, '01, '02
Women's Individual Titles (3) ? 1992, '99, 2002.
POST-MEET ATHLETE/COACH QUOTES
Galen Rupp
“It was a great day for Oregon. After the World Championships in August, I was excited to come back and be a part of this team. We have such an unbelievable group of guys, and we had confidence coming in, even yesterday - we were so relaxed. (After I finished) It was so fun to watch the other guys come in and be able to celebrate it. We knew we needed to get in good position early and put ourselves in the mix. We told ourselves that it was different than any other race and we needed to get out hard and work together.
“(The last 2,000m) Josh (McDougal) did a great job of getting a little gap on me. I tried to take it to the line today but today he was a better runner than me. I tried to keep going to my arms and give it all I had. I might have gone a little too early, but it was a move I had to make. Coming back on him took a lot of energy. I had been behind him for awhile, and when I caught him, I tried to surge past, but he did a good job of hanging on. We took our turns with surges the last straightaway. I knew Lopez and Josh were favorites to watch out for, so I wasn't planning on taking it hard from the start. I wanted to sit back and stay relaxed as possible then work the last mile. (About the slightly slower first kilometer (2:45 split)) I was ready for a slower pace if it happened. There were a lot of great guys there, so we were looking around waiting for each other's moves, and you expect that in a competition like this.”
Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott
“The race went well, and I felt good overall out there. It wasn't too fast or slow of a start and that played into my racing style. I felt fine until maybe the eighth kilometer and even then I just kept the team in my mind and ran for them. That's why I came to Oregon, so it's great to finally accomplish this. I love these guys, I love Oregon, and we've worked so hard together. I kept a good focus during the race, and was able during the first half to look around and see my teammates ? Danny, Diego and Kenny ? around me and that pumped me up.”
Diego Mercado
“(When his brother Daniel fell in the second mile) He was right behind me and then one of the UCLA guys grabbed me and said my brother went down, but to his credit he got up and I saw him later in the race with Kenny so I knew not to worry. I tried to look ahead the second half of the race. I was careful not to go too hard at 5,000m ? it didn't feel right there because a lot of other runners nearby made a big push, but I wanted to wait a little bit, and I caught all those guys easily later. I stayed with the same group of guys almost the whole time between approximately 35th-45th early on, and with that group we passed runners together the last couple kilometers. I made sure the lead group didn't get away early and went through 2:45 the first 1,000m. I was scared to go out too fast too early last year, but this year I had more confidence. During the race I tried to keep the song by Queens of the Stone Age in my head called ?Battery Acid', and that helped keep me relaxed and focused.”
Vin Lananna
“The University of Oregon has a wonderful tradition in cross country. The groups we had out there were poised to add another chapter of that storybook heritage. On the men's side, we wanted to get out. I don't know if you can win NCAA's by sitting back. Before this year, we wanted to create an identity for our teams that we could build off. Anybody who finishes top 15 individually runs a fantastic race since this has all events from 1,5000m on up, running together. The guys were appropriately excited but not nervous before the race. On the women's side, the women had no idea what to expect. The women's field, on paper, didn't have any team that was a obvious second place team ? any one of seven teams or so could be second ? so we wanted to have Nicole and Alex up there and get the other girls across as soon as possible. We left Keara (Sammons) out today and if she was in there, who knows what could have happened. Regardless, I'm happy with how we performed today and this year. To be as close to the unanimous top women's team in the nation in Stanford, we are very proud of.”
“It was nice to be up there on the (awards) stage again, and I'm very proud of our teams ? they're a great group of kids. Galen and Shadrack ran tough all way. Alex and Nicole also had big time races. Nicole really put herself among the elite distance runners in the country, and Alex raised her cross country racing to an all new level so watch out for her on the track.”
Nicole Blood
“I was never out of control and I felt great. At Pac-10's that pace and kind of race felt a little fast, but today I came in confident and feeling great. I wanted to be up that lead pack early and be in a position to stay with them. My goal was to run with them, so I wanted to be in the best position from the start and not let them get away. The course was great, and the footing was awesome. I was in much better shape this year and got better with every meet. I have a lot more experience this year and a better base and fall season of training. Coming into here, I wanted to be top 10 and try to be top three as a team."”
Alexandra Kosinski
“It was a fun race. I died a little at 5,000m, but I guess it was more of a gradual death (smiling), and I was able to kick pretty well the final straightaway. I had some nervous energy coming in, but it helped to have Nicole around. She's a very smart runner, so having her there give me reassurance that I'm doing the right thing and keeps me relaxed. Coach was hoping that I could finish top 20 so I was glad to accomplish that.”
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Players Mentioned
