Even though the Oregon football team couldn’t take down a top-10 opponent at home Saturday, both the Duck men’s and women’s cross country teams had no trouble dispatching their top foes in front of the home fans at the second annual Bill Dellinger Invitational.
The men and women each took down a top-five opponent at Springfield Country Club – the No. 3 men upset No. 1 Wisconsin 54-73 while the No. 24 women surprised No. 4 Arkansas 65-90. The lowest score wins in cross country.
Leading the way for the Duck women was sophomore Nicole Blood who won the 6-kilometer race in 20 minutes, 4 seconds – 13 seconds ahead of runner-up Katie Follett of Washington. Freshman Alex Kosinski, who ran with Blood most of the race, finished third in her collegiate debut.
Washington’s Anita Campbell took the pace out hard in the beginning, opening a 40-meter lead on the field in the first half of the race. Blood and Kosinski slowly ate away at Campbell’s lead, passing her with a kilometer and a half to go.
“She (Campbell) usually goes out pretty hard, so I just stayed relaxed and luckily Alex was right next to me … We just pushed each other and eventually caught up to her,” Blood said.
Keara Sammons, the third Duck across the finish line, took eighth place. Bria Wetsch finished 21st, followed by Betsy Bies in 32nd, Sarah Pearson in 39th and Zoe Buckman in 45th.

The Ducks’ win marked a complete turnaround from their performance at last year’s Dellinger Invitational, when they were missing several injured top athletes and finished a disappointing 10th place out of 11 teams.
“That was a really, really big win for them,” head coach Vin Lananna said.
Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott led the Duck men to their second-straight Dellinger Invitational championship, finishing the 8-kilometer race in second place, four seconds behind Wisconsin’s Matt Withrow.
The main pack of runners stayed tight together through the 10-minute mark before beginning to string out. Kiptoo-Biwott, Withrow, Alabama’s Emmanuel Bor and Augustus Maiyo and UTEP’s Stephen Samoei then took turns sharing the lead until Withrow pulled away in the home stretch to finish in 23:20.
Carlos Trujillo was the second Duck across the line in 9th, followed closely behind by Kenny Klotz in 12th and Danny and Diego Mercado in 15th and 16th, respectively. The Ducks’ No. 2-5 runners were separated by only seven seconds.
“My teammates did a good job … and I’m glad we were able to bring the title back home,” Kiptoo-Biwott said.
A.J. Acosta and Scott Wall rounded out Oregon’s top seven.
The Ducks have two weeks before they race again Oct. 13. Part of the squad will travel to the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, Ind., while the rest will run at the Mike Hodges Invitational in Clackamas.