University of Oregon
Stanford Invitational
Noble & Rupp Pace UO in Stanford Invite Final Day
03/31/07 | Track and Field
STANFORD, Calif. – A pair of University of Oregon's top distance runners – junior Galen Rupp and sophomore Rebekah Noble – clicked off impressive efforts in Saturday's second and final day action in the Stanford Invitational, hosted by Stanford University at Cobb Track and Angell Field.
Rupp ran a controlled effort in the men's 10,000m and placed 12th overall and seventh among collegians (28:35.04) – a time that easily met the NCAA automatic standard (28:45.00) and was his fastest 25-lap track efforts since his runner-up NCAA finish in Sacramento in June, 2005.
The Portland, Ore., native clocked 14:15 in the first half of the race and ran with a large, 8-10 person chase pack, one that still had 4-5 runners in it with a kilometer to go, then ran much of the last two kilometers with two-time U.S. Olympian Adam Goucher (12th, 28:35.04).
Rupp's personal best in the event – 28:15.52 – came in the 2005 Oregon Twilight and moved him to third all-time for UO. A month later, he scored second in the NCAA 10,000m (28:23.75), and matched UO's highest ever finish in the event.
Overall in Saturday's 10,000m, collegians Nicodemus Naimadu of Abilene Christian (first, 28:06.26) and Stephen Samoie of UTEP (second, 28:07.65) kicked past Ryan Hall of Asics (third, 28:07.93) in the final lap.
Also in the race, redshirt sophomore Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott ran nearly even 69-second pace to score an NCAA provisional time in his track event debut (22nd, 29:00.52) that met the 29:30.00 minimum qualifying standard and was less than three seconds from UO's top-10 list (10th is Terrence Mahon, 28:57.79, 1989).
Also in the 10,000m, freshman Jonathan Thomas made his event debut (26th, 30:17.66).
In the men's 1,500m, freshman Andrew Wheating clipped almost five seconds off his 1,500m best in his collegiate event debut (15th, 3:48.14), and just missed the regional standard (3:47.80).
Three other Ducks also ran the event Saturday – redshirt sophomore James Withers who scored a personal best (10th, 3:51.07), junior A.J. Casteel (19th, 3:52.31) and sophomore Duke Wasteney (24th, 3:52.84) – and the latter two were just shy of similar honors.
Two other Duck men ran the men's 5,000m elite heats as redshirt sophomore Scott Wall (seventh-section, PR 14:08.19) and freshman A.J. Acosta (28th-section, PR 14:10.47) both met the regional standard (14:12.00).
On the women's side, sophomore Rebekah Noble relied on her tried-and-true kick to win her heat of the 1,500m (4:17.49) and ranked fifth overall among the two sections.
The Spokane, Wash., native ran in the back half of the pack for the first three laps, then reeled off a 62-second final quarter and blew past the field in the final 200m for a whopping 7.06-second personal best, and rewrote her former best (4:24.43) from the same meet last season.
Her time Saturday also moved her to sixth all-time for UO past Penny Graves (seventh, 4:18.57, 1987), Cheri Williams (eighth, 4:18.9, 1979), Lise Johansen (ninth, 4:18.90, 1989) and Katie Crabb (10th, 4:19.30, 2000).
Also in the same event, freshman Nicole Blood (22nd overall, 4:25.44) also met the regional standard (4:27.80) in her collegiate outdoor event debut, and senior Dana Buchanan also competed Saturday (29th, 4:31.97).
Complete results are available at the www.GoStanford.com website at the http://www.sml1.com/recordtiming/stanford/stanford_invite07/ URL address.
Looking ahead to next weekend
Looking ahead, the Duck men and women return home to Hayward Field in Eugene and renew their famed scored meet tradition in the 18th annual Pepsi Team Invitational, Sat., April 7. The meet features three other of the nation's top programs – Kansas State, Washington and USC – and will run from 11:40 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
- www.GoDucks.com -
Players Mentioned
