When Oregon head coach Vin Lananna was hired in July 2005, one of the things on his to-do list was to have high-quality cross country meets at Oregon. Prior to Lananna’s arrival, the Ducks hadn’t hosted a home meet since 1998. Last year, the inaugural Bill Dellinger Invitational, held on Pre’s Trail at Alton Baker Park, proved to be a success, drawing top competition from around the country.
This year, due to logistical issues, the meet was moved to Springfield Country Club, which will also host the NCAA West Regional Meet in November.
“It was disappointing to move it off of Pre’s Trail,” Lananna said. “Alton Baker Park was a good place, it was close, the community owned it and it was really a great concept. It was a logistical nightmare for us though.”

Bill Dellinger, who coached track and cross country at Oregon from 1968 to 1998, is a longtime member of the Springfield Country Club, Lananna said.
“They were pleased to do it. It was a great connection to Coach Dellinger and it was a great collaborative effort.”
The move to away from Pre’s Trail did not deter the nation’s best from signing up. Top-ranked Wisconsin, No. 4 Oregon, No. 7 Texas-El Paso and No. 14 Portland highlight the men’s entries. On the women’s side, five ranked teams, led by No. 4 Arkansas and No. 13 Georgia, will toe the line.
The competition doesn’t really worry the Ducks at this stage in the season though.
“The way I look at it, the whole cross country season is about getting the team ready for the end of the season,” Lananna said.
He also emphasized that that doesn’t mean the Ducks won’t be taking the meet seriously. “Any event we do, we will compete to win.”
Sophomore Kenny Klotz said that while he and his teammates are focused on preparing for the championship portion of their season, they still want to come out and run their best.
“We’re gonna try to work together as a pack during the race and try to score the best we can to beat all the teams in the meet,” he said.
The women are using the meet to show that they are an improved team.
“We’re not necessarily trying to prove anything,” senior Sarah Pearson said, “but to show what we can do, yes, definitely. We have an amazing team.”
Junior Zoe Nelson expressed a similar sentiment. “It’s our home meet and it’s kind of an important one to us,” she said. “We take this one pretty seriously and we need to show everyone that we’re in shape and we’re ready for the year.
“This is our first race together as a team so it’ll be more just seeing how we work together.”
Lananna is looking forward to seeing how the women respond to racing some of the nation’s elite teams. “I think that our women are poised for a challenge. And they will be challenged… I think the women will be much, much better than they were last year.”
Having the meet close to Eugene with the home fans cheering them on is something that both the men and women are looking forward to.
“We definitely take some pride in it and I know the guys won last year and that was really cool because we had a huge crowd out here and probably no other local meets get such a big attendance as we do,” Nelson said.
Klotz said he hopes that lots of students are able come out to watch, even though the meet is farther away from campus this year.
“There were a lot of students there watching (last year) and hopefully even though it’s a little farther away from Eugene we can get the students to come out there too.”
For Pearson, a Eugene native, the meet allows her friends and family watch her race.
“It’s really exciting for me to be able to tell people I know and to race at home in Eugene,” she said.
The meet is also for the Eugene community to come out and support the athletes in person. “If we’re gonna have a cross country team that is going to be competitive at the national level, it makes all the sense in the world to give the community in which the kids live to have an opportunity to actually watch them,” Lananna said. “It’s a great spectator course and I think that anybody who comes out to watch it will have an opportunity to see the athletes multiple times.”
“There’s just a pride in having a local meet and the whole Oregon tradition. We have a big fan base so we want to have a good race for them too,” Nelson said.
Spectators who make the trip to the Springfield Country Club Saturday can see the women’s 6,000-meter race begin at 9:15 a.m. and the men’s 8,000-meter race at 10 a.m.
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