Luke Puskedra won the second individual cross country race title of his career as the No. 3 Oregon men rolled to victory at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind., Friday.
In all, four Duck men covered the 8,000-meter course fast enough to finish in the top 20. Puskedra, a junior from Salt Lake City, Utah, staved off challenges from New Mexico’s Nicholas Kipruto (23:45) and fellow Oregon runner Matthew Centrowitz (23:46) to win the race in 23:39. Duck seniors and cross country All-Americans Danny Mercado and A.J. Acosta finished 18th (24:17) and 20th (24:19), respectively.
Redshirt freshman Ben DeJarnette finished in 27th place (24:30) in his second collegiate race to round out the Oregon scorers. Junior Chris Kwiatkowski fell just outside the scoring range in 29th place (24:31), and freshman Parker Stinson made his Duck debut count for a 36th-place finish (24:38).
Oregon, the highest-ranked team in the 21-team field, finished with 69 points. No. 16 New Mexico, placing three runners among the top six, finished second with 78 points, followed by No. 21 Florida State (99), Tulsa (196) and Penn State (205).
In the 6,000-meter women’s race, sophomore Jordan Hasay and senior Alex Kosinski paced the No. 5 Ducks to a second-place team finish with 118 points. Defending national champion and No. 1 Villanova placed three runners in the top seven to capture the team title with 64 points.
Below Oregon in the standings were No. 2 Florida State (129), No. 12 New Mexico (143) and Stony Brook (153).
Seawolves senior Lucy Van Dalen (16:22) held off Villanova junior Sheila Reid (16:26) for the individual title. UTEP’s Risper Kimaiyo crossed the finish line in 16:29 for third place.
Hasay and Kosinski finished in 16:45 and 16:46 to claim eighth and ninth places, respectively. Redshirt freshman Melanie Thompson and senior Zoe Buckman also crossed the finish line together, in 28th and 29th places. Both runners were timed at 17:17.
Sophomore Anne Kesselring (44th, 17:27) was the Ducks’ fifth-place runner, and sophomores Becca Friday (52nd, 17:32) and Taylor Wallace (64th, 17:40) also competed for Oregon.
Men 11th at Charles Bowles Invitational
A second squad of Oregon men competed in the Charles Bowles Invitational on Saturday, finishing 11th out of 23 teams. Portland (25 points) took home the men’s team title.
Ken Scoggin (24:44.23) and Tim Costin (24:45.66) finished 31st and 32nd in the 8,000-meter Cardinal race. Spencer Carter (38th, 24:58.82), Walker Augustyniak (68th, 25:30.56) and Hank Morrison (215th, 28:58.92) also competed for the Ducks.
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