Nelson & Thomas Look Ahead to USA XC Champs
EUGENE, Ore. ? A pair of University of Oregon freshmen, Zoe Nelson and Jonathan Thomas, will compete this Sat.-Sun, Feb. 18-19 in the USA Junior Cross Country Championships, held at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City.
Nelson is entered in the junior women’s 6,000-meter race, scheduled for Saturday morning, and Thomas will compete in the junior men’s 8,000-meter race, slated for Sunday morning. Meet results will be available at the www.usatf.org website after the races.
Both Ducks ran in last year’s USA Junior Cross Country Championships, held in February 2005 in Fort Vancouver, Wash. Nelson (11th, 22:34.1) missed a spot on the six-woman U.S. junior team for the World Cross Country Championships by 26 seconds, and Thomas (16th, 26:24.0) competed in the same race won by UO teammate Galen Rupp who is the first Duck ever to win a U.S. junior harrier title (first, 25:13.9).
Last weekend on the track in the Husky Collegiate in Seattle, both Ducks ran personal bests in 3,000-meter tune-up races, and Nelson finished 14th (9:49.74) and Thomas placed 25th (8:17.09).
In addition to crowning national champions, the USA Cross Country Championships serves as the selection event for the U.S. team that will compete in the 2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, April 1-2. The top six finishers in the men’s and women’s open and junior races are eligible for the U.S. team, and more meet info located at the www.wxc2006.com website.
Nelson was one of Oregon’s top newcomers last fall in cross country, and stood second on the team in the Pac-10 (16th, 21:34) and NCAA West Regional Championships (19th, 21:05), and helped the Ducks to third- and fourth-place finishes, respectively. She led the harrier unit in the first two races of the season ? the Pier Park Preview (first, 18:30.9) and Willamette Invitational (fourth, 17:14) ? and ranked fifth for UO in the Pre-NCAA Invitational (82nd, 21:55.0).
Before she joined the Ducks, the Kalispell, Mont., native Nelson already owned a decorated resume as a prep. She was a national high school cross country champion as a sophomore in the fall of 2002, a three-time top-10 prep national finisher, and four-time state harrier winner.
Thomas also was one of UO’s top newcomers in cross country last fall. He placed third on the team in the Pac-10 Championships (24th, 25:07), and ranked sixth on the unit in the NCAA West Regional (63rd, 31:44) and seventh in the Pre-NCAA Invitational (177th, 29:59).
As a prep, the Des Moines, Iowa native Thomas won the state cross country title as a junior in 2003, and was second as a senior in ’04 among his three, top-10 harrier finishes. On the track, he was the state 3,200 runner-up as a junior and senior, and third in the 1,600 as a senior. His 2-mile best last June (9:07.53) was the fourth-fastest in Iowa history.
Among the weekend’s four other senior men’s (4K/12K) and women’s (4K/8K) races, entries with UO and Eugene ties include former Ducks Magdalena Sandoval and Jason Hartmann, area post-collegian Tom Chorny (4K), and several members of the Team Eugene and Team XO clubs.
In preparation for the weekend’s six races, meet organizers will be busy this week clearing the course after a record 27 inches of snowfall on Sun. (2/12). The meet organizer New York Road Runners Club have hired nearly 50 extra people and mechanical snow clearing equipment, including three bobcats, to get the Van Cortlandt Park course ready.
USA Cross Country Championships Schedule
*Note: More Meet Info is located at the www.USATF.org website at http://www.usatf.org/events/2006/USAXCChampionships/news.asp
Saturday, February 18, 2006
9:30 a.m. Masters Women 8 km
10:15 Masters Men 8 km
11:00 Junior Women 6 km
11:40 Open Men 4 km
12:10 p.m. Open Women 8 km
12:50 NYRR 4 km Community Run
Sunday, February 19, 2006
10:00 a.m. Junior Men 8 km
10:45 Open Women 4 km
11:15 Open Men 12 km
12:30 p.m. NYRR 4 km Community Run
This year's national championships will mark the 42nd race for the women and 108th 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 and UO great 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, a former pupil of Oregon director of track and field Vin Lananna. 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: Much 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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