Six meets into the season, the Oregon cross country team has yet to leave the state. Just the way head coach Vin Lananna likes it.
“Once we found out that we would be hosting the regionals, I was glad to find out that (the state of Oregon) would be hosting the Pac-10s as well, and we made a conscious decision to stay in this community as we’re developing a really strong cross country men’s and women’s team,” he said.
The only meet the Ducks will have outside Oregon is the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind.
Two weeks after the men won the Pacific-10 Conference title and the women took second, the Ducks return to Springfield Saturday as hosts of the NCAA West Regional Championships, the qualifying meet for the Nov. 19 NCAA Championships.
The Oregon athletic department expects thousands of fans at the meet and Lananna is looking forward to welcoming them all.
“It’s great for the people here to come out to the Springfield Country Club … and really see a great cross country meet,” he said.
The meet starts at 11 a.m. when the No. 1 Oregon men face off against six other ranked teams.
Even though the Ducks have already won their second straight Pacific-10 Conference title and defeated a national-class field at the Bill Dellinger Invitational in September, all but guaranteeing themselves a berth in the NCAA Championships regardless of the results of Saturday’s West Regional Championships in Springfield, you wouldn’t know it talking to them.
“The main thing is to qualify,” freshman Daniel Mercado said. “We’re gonna treat it just the way we’ve been doing it the whole year. We have to group up, we have to do whatever we have to do to get the spots, one or two.”
“We need to finish in the top two in order to move on to the NCAAs,” Lananna said.
The top two teams receive automatic invitations to the NCAA Championships, while the rest will have to wait to see if they receive an at-large bid.
Leading the charge for the Ducks will be juniors Galen Rupp and Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott. At the Pac-10 Championships two weeks ago, the two led the race wire-to-wire and will be the favorites to win Saturday. Challengers will include the Stanford trio of Russell Brown, Hari Mix and last year’s regional champion and national runner-up, Nef Araia.
“This regional is probably one of the toughest regions in the country,” Mercado said.
After running 8 kilometers most of the season, the men will be bumped up to 10 kilometers for the regional and national championships and Lananna sees that as an advantage for his men.
“I think it’s a positive for us,” he said. “We have trained all season with the intent of running 10,000 meters … and I think they’re prepared for it.”
Mercado agreed.
“Our coaches prepared us pretty well to pretty much face anything,” he said.
The No. 2 women are in a similar position to the men, in that they will also likely be selected for the NCAA meet even if they don’t earn an automatic qualifier.
“I feel relatively confident that we’re gonna be in a good position if we don’t get in the top two because we’ve beat some other teams along the way,” Lananna said.
The Duck women will face stiff competition for the two automatic qualifying positions. No. 1 Stanford beat the Ducks by 16 points at the Pac-10s and No. 5 Arizona State and No. 7 Washington were each just four points back of Oregon.
“They were right on us at Pac-10s, but there’s places we can improve, but I think the same thing for them too, so we’re definitely going to have to be on top of our game Saturday,” Blood said.
Blood, who won the Dellinger Invitational in September on the same course, and freshman Alex Kosinski finished right behind the Stanford duo of Arianna Lambie and Teresa McWalters at the Pac-10 Championships and hope to be able to challenge the Cardinal.
“We’re gonna work together and see what we can do,” Blood said. “If we can stay together and work together for most of the race, it could be a different outcome.” The women’s 6K race starts at 12:15 p.m.
Spectators should expect a sloppy course, as Saturday’s weather forecast calls for rain.
Lananna said that a wet course could be to the Ducks’ advantage.
“I kinda hope it is raining, I kinda hope it is wet and I kinda hope it is muddy,” he said.
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Runners’ goal at regionals is simple: Qualify and advance
Daily Emerald
November 8, 2007
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