2007 UO Cross Country Statistics
Under the guidance of third-year director of track and field and cross country Vin Lananna, the Duck men and women capped one of their most successful seasons in history, punctuated by first and second-place finishes in the NCAA Championships.
The No. 1-ranked Men of Oregon seized control of the NCAA Championship team race from the gun and never let up on the 31-team, 255-runner field, and featured five All-Americans up front - juniors Galen Rupp (second) and Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (ninth), sophomore Diego and redshirt freshman Daniel Mercado (30th / 41st) and sophomore Kenny Klotz (37th). UO's title was its fifth ever and first since their legendary win in 1977.
During the season, the Ducks ranked first in the nation much of the year, and 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 1999 thanks to wins by Kiptoo-Biwott and Rupp, respectively. Going back through the history books, 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.
Altogether, six Duck men were tabbed to All-Pac-10 squads based on their Pac-10 placings. Kiptoo-Biwott and Rupp claimed first-team nods, and the quartet of Scott Wall (11th), A.J. Acosta (12th), Klotz (13th) and Andrew Wheating (14th) were second-team laurels.
Earlier in the year, the Men of Oregon won the Bill Dellinger Invitational at the Springfield Country Club against a national caliber field that featured six eventual NCAA team qualifiers (NCAA placings in ()) - Wisconsin (fifth), Alabama (sixth), UTEP (10th), Cal Poly (11th), Portland (14th) and Ohio State (30th).
On the women's side, the No. 3-ranked Ducks shined in their first NCAA trip since 2000, and scored 177 points in the NCAA Championships, and finished just behind No. 1 Stanford (145 points). UO's finish was its third-best ever besides their titles in 1983 and '87, and fourth runner-up honor overall among its 25 postseason trips since its first in 1975 (including AIAW Championships).
In the collegiate finale, All-America sophomore and freshman Nicole Blood and Alex Kosinski gave UO its first pair of top 15 NCAA placers since 1995 when Melody Fairchild and Jenna Carlson placed ninth and 15th. Freshman Zoe Buckman also moved up considerably the final kilometer to place 39th overall and gave UO its first top-40 women's trio since 1987 - the last year the Ducks won the team title.
In September, the Oregon women opened the year by besting five eventual NCAA team qualifiers to win the second annual Bill Dellinger Invitational at the Springfield Country Club, and were led by Nicole Blood who won the 6,000m race for her first collegiate XC victory.
In the postseason, UO scored runner-up efforts in the Pac-10 and West Regional for the first time since 1997 and ’98, respectively, and were led by All-Pac-10 First Team selections Kosinski and Blood who finished third and fourth in the league finale, respectively - UO's first-ever pair of first-team women's honorees. Also in the Pac-10 Championships, sophomore Bria Wetsch and Buckman also placed top-20 (16th / 17th), and trailed closely by Zoe Nelson (24th). Two weeks later in the regional, Blood scored runner-up honors, and was one of five top-30 placers that included Kosinski (sixth), Wetsch (16th), Buckman (21st) and senior Sarah Pearson (27th).
