University of Oregon
NCAA West Regional
Rupp Leads Regional Win as Both Cross Country Teams Advance to NCAAs
11/15/08 | Cross Country
STANFORD, Calif. -- Galen Rupp won his second straight NCAA West Regional title to lead the Oregon men's cross country team to victory Saturday at the NCAA West Regional. With the women finishing second, both Duck teams automatically advanced to the NCAA Championships, Nov. 24 in Terre Haute, Ind.
"Both teams accomplished what they needed to do to advance and qualify for the NCAA Championships," said Associate Athletic Director Vin Lananna. "We got through and kept everybody healthy. I thought we ran good, tough races, but we ran within ourselves, which really sets us up well for the national championships."
Alexandra Kosinski became Oregon's first NCAA West Regional women's champion in 14 years, winning the 6,000-meter race in 19:59.01. The sophomore from El Dorado Hills Calif., is the Ducks' first regional champion since Milena Glusac won the 1994 crown.
The Oregon men were dominant in winning their third straight NCAA West Regional title. It was the program's seventh overall regional win, and also marked the first time that Oregon has won three straight; the Ducks other four wins came in 1982-83 and 1988-89.
Led by a one-two finish from Rupp and Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott, the top-ranked Ducks scored 38 points to outdistance No. 3 Stanford, which finished with 72 points. No. 4 Portland was third with 85 points, No. 20 California was fifth with 116 points, No. 23 Washington was fifth with 122 points, No. 26 UCLA was sixth with 145 points and No. 7 Cal Poly was seventh with 184 points.
Demonstrating the strength of the West Region, the top seven teams were in contention to advance to the NCAA Championships. Official bids for the 13 at-large teams will be extended by the NCAA on Monday.
Oregon had three of the top six men's runners, and all five of the Ducks' scorers finished in the top 15.
Rupp, a senior from Portland, Ore., won the race by over 50 seconds, finishing the 10,000-meter course in an NCAA West Regional record time of 27:41.24. He became just the third Oregon runner to win back-to-back Regional titles, joining Jim Hill in 1982-83 and Karl Keska in 1995-96.
"Galen ran great," said Lananna. "That's really an incredible performance. He was out front from the gun and is just really running well right now."
Kiptoo-Biwott, a senior from Albuquerque, N.M., took second in 28:32.31. Portland's Alfred Kipchumba was third in 28:36.02, while Pilot teammate David Kinsella, who won the 2008 Bill Dellinger Invitational, ran fourth in 28:43.88. Stanford's Chris Derrick placed sixth in 28:44.31.
Other scorers for Oregon included freshman Luke Puskedra, who ran sixth in 28:45.48, junior Kenny Klotz, who was 14th in 29:28.08 and junior Diego Mercado who placed 15th in 29:29.75. The Ducks also got a 19th-place finish from senior Curtis Suver (29:38.46) and a 33rd-place showing from sophomore Danny Mercado (30:02.29).
"We packed up ran well together today," said Lananna. "It was much better than we ran at Pac-10s.
"And we were able to let Luke and some of our other guys back off with about 1,000 meters to go so we could save something for the NCAAs."
The Duck women also took the first two places on Saturday, with Nicole Blood following Kosinski across the line. The junior from Sarasota Springs, N.Y., who was also second at the 2007 NCAA West Regional, finished in 20:01.23.
"It was a very nice performance from Alex and Nicole," said Lananna. "They ran well together. But today was really all about getting qualified for nationals, which is what they did."
Behind the two Ducks, five Huskies crossed the line in the third to seventh positions as top-ranked Washington won the team title with 25 points. Christine Babcock was the top UW runner, finishing third in 20:02.25. The second-ranked Ducks were second with 62 points, followed by No. 11 Stanford with 91 points, No. 16 Arizona State with 128 points and Portland with 215 points.
Other Oregon finishers included senior Mattie Bridgmon, who placed 13th in 20:21.70, senior Lindsey Scherf, who was 19th in 20:32.21, senior Zoe Nelson, who placed 27th in 20:48.94 and sophomore Zoe Buckman, who took 34th in 21:00.53.
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