The nation’s top cross country runners will gather this weekend in New York City’s Van Courtlandt Park to test their mental strength and physical endurance in the 2006 USA Cross Country Championships. Oregon’s Zoe Nelson and Jonathan Thomas will represent the Ducks among hundreds of competitors at the event.
Nelson and Thomas are true freshmen and two of the top recruits in cross country for the past fall season. Thomas ran as high as the third position most of the season for the Oregon men and Nelson ran in the second position for the women. In her debut meet, the Pier Park Preview in September, Nelson took first overall.
“I’ve been doing a lot of training and work in the pool this winter,” Nelson said. “I was having some trouble with one of my legs, so (the coaches) have been supplementing a lot of my training with pool running. And I also competed last weekend in the 3,000 at the Seattle indoor as a tune-up race.”
Nelson and Thomas each ran personal bests in the 3,000 meters last weekend in the Husky Collegiate. Nelson finished 14th in 9:49.74 and Thomas placed 25th in 8:17.09. In this weekend’s race Nelson will be running in the U.S. junior women’s 6,000-meter race and Thomas will be running in the U.S. junior men’s 8,000.
After 27 inches of snow covered New York on Feb. 12, meet organizer New York Road Runners Club took immediate action. In a press release, it said that approximately 50 extra people have been hired a d mechanical equipment has been brought in to ensure that the course will be ready by Saturday. Nelson, who is from Kalispell, Mont., said that the weather is the least of her worries. She explained that she has “a lot of experience in not-so-great running conditions, to say the least.”
Regardless of the weather, only the top six finishers will qualify for the International Association of Athletics Federation World Cross Country Championships that will be held in Japan on April 1-2.
“My goal is to place in the top six and just run strong, to the best of my capability,” Nelson said. “I feel like I am in pretty good shape right now and I’ve been working really hard and I hope the race reflects the hard training I’ve put in. I think if I can do that, I should qualify.
“I went to nationals last year and took eleventh. I think it would be fun, if I qualify, to go on a trip and race the best people around the world. It would be a new experience to meet new people, see how other people run, and just see how you’d perform against other people your age.”
In last year’s race, Nelson was a mere 26 seconds from qualifying for the U.S. team.
Thomas, who also competed last year, placed 16th with a time of 26:24.0.
Thomas’s current teammate Galen Rupp won last year. He finished in 25:13.9, becoming the first Duck to ever win a U.S. Junior cross country title.
Oregon freshmen to race in national cross country meet
Daily Emerald
February 16, 2006
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