They may be young, but it’s hard to argue with the results.
In the finest combined showing in the storied history of the Oregon cross country programs, the Ducks collected the men’s national championship and were runners-up on the women’s side Monday at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. The men’s title was their first since 1977 and fifth overall.
Led by junior Galen Rupp’s second-place finish, the senior-less Ducks placed their top five runners in the first 41 places en route to 85 points. No. 3 Iona was the closest challenger, finishing second with 113 points, and No. 9 Oklahoma State was third with 180. Portland was 14th and Pacific-10 Conference rival Stanford was 19th.
“That’s why I came to Oregon, so it’s great to finally accomplish this,” junior Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott said in an Oregon media release. “I love these guys, I love Oregon, and we’ve worked so hard together.”
The five Oregon scorers all earned All-American honors, the most the program has ever had. In addition to Rupp’s second-place finish, Kiptoo-Biwott also finished in the top 10, coming in ninth. Sophomore Diego Mercado improved on his 49th-place finish from 2006, crossing the line in 30th. Fellow sophomore Kenny Klotz was seven places behind him and redshirt freshman Daniel Mercado was 41st.
The Ducks have had four All-Americans six times before, most recently in 2002.
“It was a great day for Oregon,” Rupp said. “(After I finished) it was so fun to watch the other guys come in and be able to celebrate it.”
The two other Oregon runners were redshirt freshman A.J. Acosta (146th) and junior Scott Wall (196th).
Rupp and Liberty’s Josh McDougal pulled away from the rest of the pack in the second half of the race, with Northern Arizona’s Lopez Lomong trailing close behind, but fading.
With just more than one kilometer to go in the 10-kilometer race, McDougal opened up a 15-meter lead over Rupp. The Duck was able to close the gap with a quarter-mile to go and even pulled slightly ahead, but McDougal was able to outsprint Rupp to the tape for a one-second win, 29:22.4 to 29:23.4. Lomong was third in 29:45.5, followed by Villanova’s Bobby Curtis (29:46.3) and Colorado’s Brent Vaughn (29:47.4).
Rupp’s finish was the highest by a Duck since Alberto Salazar was also second in 1979.
“Josh did a great job of getting a little gap on me,” Rupp said. “Coming back on him took a lot of energy. I had been behind him for awhile, and when I caught him, I tried to surge past, but he did a good job of hanging on.”
The team championship is the sixth for head coach Vin Lananna, and his first at Oregon. He previously won three men’s and one women’s cross country title and one men’s track and field title while head coach at Stanford.

The women’s team was unable to overcome the experience of top-ranked Stanford, but pulled out a second-place finish after a six-year absence from the meet. Oregon ran two freshmen, two sophomores, a junior and two seniors against the Cardinal’s five seniors, one sophomore and one freshman.
Stanford won its third-straight title by 32 points over the No. 3 Ducks, 145 to 177. Oregon moved up throughout the later stages of the race passing, among others, No. 2 Florida State, who finished third with 236 points. Arizona State made it three Pac-10 teams in the top four and Washington was eighth.
The Ducks won their first team trophy since they finished second in 1988, the year after their last national championship.
“We left Keara (Sammons) out today and if she was in there, who knows what could have happened,” Lananna said about the injured redshirt freshman, who placed third for the Ducks at the Bill Dellinger Invitational in September. “Regardless, I’m happy with how we performed today and this year. To be as close to the unanimous top women’s team in the nation in Stanford, we are very proud.”
Texas Tech junior Sally Kipyego ran away from the field early and never looked back, winning her second-consecutive title by 17 seconds over Colorado’s Jennifer Barringer. Kipyego finished in 19:30.9 and Barringer ran 19:47.8.
Sophomore Nicole Blood placed eighth overall in the 6-kilometer race, the best finish for an Oregon woman since Lisa Karnopp was third in 1991.
“I was never out of control and I felt great,” said Blood, who finished in 20:17.6. “I wanted to be up that lead pack early and be in a position to stay with them. My goal was to run with them, so I wanted to be in the best position from the start and not let them get away.”
Oregon’s Alex Kosinski was the top-placing freshman, finishing 13th in 20:33.3.
“It was a fun race,” Kosinski said. “I died a little at 5,000m, but I guess it was more of a gradual death, and I was able to kick pretty well the final straightaway.”
Freshman Zoe Buckman was Oregon’s third finisher, 39th overall in 21:05.9, followed by sophomore Bria Wetsch (76th, 21:23.7), senior Sarah Pearson (103rd, 21:33.4), junior Zoe Nelson (135th, 21:47.1) and senior Brooke Giuffre (212nd, 22:34.4).
Blood and Kosinski were the Ducks’ first All-Americans since Laura Harmon in 2004.
The previous best combined performances for Oregon were in 1979, when the men were NCAA runners-up and the women were AIAW runners-up, and in 1983, when the women were NCAA champions and the men were third.
“The University of Oregon has a wonderful tradition in cross country,” Lananna said. “The groups we had out there were poised to add another chapter of that storybook heritage.”
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