Current & Former Ducks Reunite in USA XC Finale - University of Oregon Athletics

EUGENE ?University of Oregon women’s senior Magdalena Sandoval and three former Ducks look forward this weekend to the USA Cross Country Championships, scheduled for Sat.-Sun., Feb. 11-12 at Fort Vancouver Park in Vancouver, Wash.

The Los Alamos, N.M. native is entered in the senior women’s 8K open race, scheduled for 12:45 pm on Saturday. The current Duck senior ended her cross country eligibility in the fall of 2003 with top-10 Pac-10 and West Regional finishes (fifth/ninth), and looks forward to her final indoor and outdoor track & field seasons in 2005. Last February, she broke the school indoor record in the 5,000 with a 39-second personal best (16:04.40) and was an NCAA automatic qualifier.

Saturday’s 8K race will also include former UO women’s great Liz Wilson who finished high enough in editions in 1994, ’95 and ’96 to earn World XC Championships invites for the U.S. team. Wilson was an All-American in the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 1987 (15^th) and ?88 (17^th), and nd ranks 10^th all-time for UO in the 5,000 (16:10.42, 1990).

On Sunday, the Duck women will be represented by two recent graduates. Carrie Zografos, a 2002 All-American for her 33^rd NCAA Cross Country Championships finish, and the school’s steeplechase record holder (10:42.02), will race the senior women’s 4K short course race that beings at 10:45 am. The Portland native and former Central Catholic High School graduate is a second-year nursing student at Boston College, and will race for the Boston Athletic Association.

Former middle distance runner Eri Macdonald, a first-year law student at Hastings College and member of the Nike Farm Team, will also enter the 4K race. Macdonald was an NCAA qualifier indoors in 2004 in the 800, and ranks seventh all-time for UO (2:06.37).

In addition to crowning national champions, the USA Cross Country Championships serve as the selection event for the U.S. team that will compete at the 2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. The top six finishers in the Open and Junior races are eligible to compete March 19-20 at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Saint Galmier, France. The USA Championships follows the same format as the upcoming World Championships, with six races over a two-day span.

USA Cross Country Championships Schedule
*Note: More Meet Info is located at the www.USATF.org website

Saturday, February 12

9:15 a.m. Community Run

10:30 a.m. Masters Men's 8 km Championship

11:45 a.m. Junior Women's 6 km Championship

12:15 p.m. Open Men's 4 km Championship

12:45 p.m. Open Women's 8 km Championship

1:30 p.m. Masters Women's 8 km Championship

Sunday, February 8

10:00 a.m. Junior Men's 8 km Championship

10:45 a.m. Open Women's 4 km Championship

11:15 a.m. Open Men's 12 km Championship

More than 600 athletes will compete in the six championship races in Vancouver, on the course just across the Oregon-Washington Border, less than three miles east of Interstate 5, near Mill Plain and Reserve Streets.

The site of the 2001 and 2002 USATF Winter Cross Country Championships, the Fort Vancouver layout is a rolling, European-style course consisting of 2 km loops on long grass.

Defending U.S. cross country 4 km women's champion Shalane Flanagan defeated a talented field last year on a treacherous snow- and ice-covered course in Indianapolis. Flanagan was in the lead pack from the beginning before displaying a strong finishing kick that got her to the finish line two seconds ahead of runner-up Carrie Tollefson. A two-time NCAA Division I cross country champion while at the University of North Carolina, Flanagan competed at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens after placing third in the 5,000 meters earlier that summer at the Olympic Trials.

Flanagan will be challenged in the women's 4 km race by 3-time NCAA 5,000-meter champion Lauren Fleshman and three-time NCAA Division II cross country champion Missy Buttry, who placed third and fourth respectively last year in Indianapolis. 2003 USA Winter Cross Country champion and 2004 Olympian Shayne Culpepper is also in the field.

The women's long course field is headlined by 2004 U.S. Women's Olympic Marathon Trials winner Colleen De Reuck, who won last year's 8 km championship in Indianapolis. The 2002 World Cross Country 8 km bronze medalist, De Reuck won the 2004 U.S. long course crown by a 31-second margin over runner-up Katie McGregor, who will challenge De Reuck on Saturday, as will 2004 Olympian Jen Rhines.

Many of America's top men's distance runners are expected to compete in Vancouver, including mile sensation and 2004 Olympian Alan Webb, who won the USA Club Nationals Cross Country Championship in 2003. Webb will face 2003 men's short course champion Robert Gary in the men's 4 km race, along with 2004 Olympians Tim Broe, Daniel Lincoln and Jonathon Riley, along with 2002 NCAA Cross Country champion Jorge Torres.

Broe, Riley and Torres also are slated to compete in the men's 12 km championship, along with 2003 NCAA cross country champion and 2004 Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein, who was the surprise winner of the 2005 Reebok Cross Country Challenge on January 9 in Belfast, Ireland, against a strong international field. Also look for two-time Olympian and four-time U.S. World Cross Country team member Abdi Abdirahman to vie for top honors.

This year's national championships will be the 41st race for the women and 107th edition of the men's event. The men's race dates back to 1890, when the first championship took place under the guidance of the Amateur Athletic Union (USATF replaced the AAU as America's track and field governing body in 1979). No events took place in 1893-96, 1899-1900 and 1904. The USA Championships were not conducted in 1998 due to the change from hosting the event in early December to conducting the event in February, beginning in 1999. The first women's championship took place in 1964. The men's and women's Championships were held together for the first time in 1979.

The women's competition has seen many great champions including five-time U.S. champ (1966, 1968-71), and five-time World Cross Country champion (1967-'71) Doris Brown-Heritage and two-time champ Francie Larrieu Smith (1972-'73), both National Track & Field Hall of Famers. Past winners include nine-time U.S. champion (1985, 1987-'93, 1996) and three-time World Cross Country champion (1990-'92) Lynn Jennings, two-time short course champ Amy Rudolph (1998-'99) and six-time 8 km champion Deena Kastor. In 2000 Kastor also won the short course race, making her the only woman ever to win both titles in the same year.

Past champions of the men's event include all-time greats such as three-time New York Marathon winner Alberto Salazar, seven-time champ Don Lash (1934-'40), four-time winner and 1972 Olympic marathon gold medalist Frank Shorter (1970-'73) - all National Track & Field Hall of Famers. Past winners include eight-time U.S. cross country champ Pat Porter (1982-'89), two-time Olympian Bob Kennedy and 1996 Olympic Marathon Trials winner Bob Kempainen. At the 2000 Championships in Greensboro, N.C., Adam Goucher became the first and only man in history to win both the long and short course races at the same Championships. The 4 km competitions for senior men and women were added in 1998.

*NOTE: Most of the meet information was taken from a USA Track & Field press release, and more information is available at the www.USATF.org website.

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