University of Oregon
NCAA West Regional
UO Women Second, Men Third at NCAA West Regional
11/14/09 | Cross Country
SPRINGFIELD, Ore – The Oregon men's and women's cross country teams posted a pair of top-three finishes Saturday morning at the NCAA West Regional Cross Country championships, held at Springfield Country Club.
The women, led by freshman Jordan Hasay's runner-up finish, took second to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships, which will be Nov. 23 in Terre Haute, Ind., while the men will await an at-large selection. The 13 at-large bids will be announced Sunday.
Women's Recap
Hasay led a contingent of five Oregon runners who placed among the top 26, as the fifth-ranked Ducks locked up their third straight trip to the NCAA Championships by virtue of their second-place finish just as the sun broke through the clouds at the 6,000 meter course.
Top-ranked Washington, led by NCAA West Regional individual champion Kendra Schaaf, won the race with 25 points, followed by Oregon's 66. No. 14 Stanford was third with 94 points, No. 16 Arizona State fourth with 119 points and No. 24 Arizona fifth with 202 points. UC Santa Barbara (228), UC Davis (232), No. 27 California (255), Oregon State (302) and San Francisco (304) rounded out the top-10 teams.
“We had all our runners in the top 26 and that was a goal,” said Oregon associate athletic director Vin Lananna. “But we'll have to wait until the nationals to see how good we really are.
“We will have to demonstrate all of our skills. We should have been better today, but the really big and important race is next week. I think we ran reasonably hard.”
Schaaf crossed the finish line in first with a time of 20:41.70, with Hasay running second in 20:52.46.
“It started out as a slow race,” Hasay said. “No one really wanted to take the lead. I didn't know what to do but after the second loop my coach told me to get it going. I came in second and I am happy about that. I am not used to running in mud so it wasn't an easy race for me.”
Oregon's top three runners – Hasay, Nicole Blood and Alex Kosinski were in the lead pack with five Huskies and Santa Clara's Stephanie Wilson for most of the race.
Blood, a senior from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., finished fifth in 21:01.00, while Kosinski, a junior from El Dorado Hills, Calif., placed eighth in 21:07.25. Santa Clara's Wilson placed sixth in 21:01.30.
“It was tough and we knew it wasn't going to be easy,” said Blood. “It really started about half way through. Before, it was kind of a jog. Now we are focusing on nationals. We put out a competitive effort today, but now we need to relax.”
The women also counted a 25th-place finish from sophomore Claire Michel in 21:39.25 and a 26th-place showing from senior Lauren Zaludek of Elmira, Ore. (21:40.51), as both runners performed well in their first NCAA Regional race. Junior Zoe Buckman took 42nd in 22:01.71, while sophomore Bronwyn Crossman was 47th in 22:08.08 as all seven Duck runners finished among the top third of the field.
The Duck women have now qualified for three straight NCAA Championships for the first time since 1997-99.
Men's Recap
Oregon, Portland and Stanford ran neck and neck the entire race over a wet 10,000-meter course before the top-ranked Cardinal and Chris Derrick that pushed ahead at the end.
Derrick took the individual title with a winning time of 30:38.84 and his teammate Elliot Heath placed second just inches behind with a time of 30:38.96.
Stanford's top five of Derrick, Heath, Justin Marpole-Bird, Brendan Gregg and Miles Unterreiner combined for 27 team points, with No. 7 Portland second with 84 points and No. 3 Oregon third with 109 points.
“We started off in a good place, but then we decided to press the pace, which was not a good thing to do and not our plan,” said Lananna. “I believe we are a trophy team, but we didn't run like one today.
“In muddy races like today, you want to make sure to establish your position in front early, because it is very hard – if not impossible – to move up. We will have to run a lot tougher and turn around. We can do it in 10 days.”
Behind the top three teams were No. 17 Washington with 120 points, No. 13 Arizona State and Cal Poly tied with 155 points, UCLA with 207, California and UC Santa Barbara with 217 and Washington State with 268 to round out the top-10.
Derrick led a 1-2-3 finish for the Cardinal with Heath and Marpole-Bird following the Pac-10 champion.
Sophomore Luke Puskedra paced Oregon with a sixth-place finish in 30:48.40.
“Both Stanford and Portland had a good and smart race,” said Puskedra. “We as a team have to get the right mindset before next week. We put in work physically, but we need to bring the enthusiasm back. The race definitely didn't go as well as we wanted it to be, but I know we are a strong team.”
The Ducks also counted a 14th-place finish from Danny Mercado. The junior from West Covina, Calif., had his best showing in three career regionals, crossing the finish line in 31:02.80. His twin brother Diego Mercado was 28th in 31:25.80.
Senior Kenny Klotz (32nd, 31:32.37) and junior A.J. Acosta (33rd, 31:37.10) rounded out the scoring for Oregon.
Players Mentioned
