Villanova junior Sheila Reid thwarted an attempt by Oregon junior Alex Kosinski to pass her with 200 meters remaining in the 5,000m race to take the women’s individual title in 16 minutes, 22.92 seconds and help the Wildcats win the women’s team title at the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Friday afternoon.
In the next race, the Oregon men found themselves in a skirmish with BYU, Portland and Alabama, all jockeying for position in a large lead pack that sustained itself for much of the 8,000m race. Crimson Tide runners Tyson David (23:37.71) and Moses Kiptoo (23:38.38) took the top two men’s spots to help Alabama win the men’s team title.
BYU’s Miles Batty finished third in the men’s race, and despite having no other runners in the top 10 the Cougars managed to hold on to second in the overall team race. Oregon’s Matthew Centrowitz, who spent much of the race in the second quarter of the pack before steadily moving up, worked his way to fourth place and led the Ducks to a third-place finish.
The Wildcat women scored 22 points to Oregon’s 41, with Baylor (86 points), UTEP (109) and Colorado State (131) rounding out the women’s top five. Unattached runner Tara Erdmann, who attends Loyola Marymount, finished third in 16:29.51, followed by Villanova’s Amanda Marino (16:30.76) and Nicole Schappert (16:33.82).
On the men’s side, Alabama scored 53 points to BYU’s 63. The Ducks scored 71 points for third place, followed by Portland (73 points) and Villanova (99).
Other Duck scorers were: Jordan Hasay (sixth overall, 16:39.71), Lauren Zaludek (12th, 16:59.83), Claire Michel (13th, 17:02.53) and Nicole Blood (15th, 17:09.60) for the women, and Danny Mercado (eighth, 23:44.40), Luke Puskedra (11th, 23:53.96), A.J. Acosta (23rd, 24:16.50) and Diego Mercado (25th, 24:18.77) for the men.
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