Tom Heinonen’s harriers traveled north to Salem and brought home a second-place finish at the Willamette Cross Country Open on Saturday. After winning the event the previous two years, the Oregon women’s cross country team could not top the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine.
In a field of 388 competitors, most of whom were with non-Division 1 schools, Hawaii’s Cheryl Smith crossed the line first with a time of 16:56.33. Oregon sophomore Laura Harmon finished third among Division-1 runners, with a time of 17:51.55, behind another Rainbow Wahine runner, Casey McGuire-Torcott, and four non-Division-1 runners.
Harmon’s average mile time over the 5,000-meter course was 5:44, which was 17 seconds off Smith’s average mile time.
Along with Harmon, the Duck’s Annette Mosey finished sixth among Division-1 runners (35th overall) with a time of 18:32.50. Mosey’s fellow sophomore Alicia Snyder-Carlson placed seventh (49th overall), followed almost nine seconds later by freshman Sara Schaaf (13th, 79th overall, 19:03.07), junior Annie Davis (14th, 89th overall, 19:12.04) and freshman Taylor Bryant (21st, 127th overall, 19:32.17).
Several Oregon runners also entered the race competing unattached. Eri Macdonald finished 33rd overall in a time of 18:31.69. Haripurkh Khalsa (189th, 20:05.29) and Rachelle Miller (209th, 20:15.04) also ran.
Macdonald has been hampered due to injury this season, but looks to be getting back to her old form. Last year, the junior from Honolulu scored in every race for Oregon.
Coming up next weekend for both the men and women is the Furman Invitational in Greenville, S.C., where many of the top teams in the country will compete.