Oregon sophomore Jordan Hasay won the Pacific-10 Conference Cross Country Championships individual title Saturday, the second consecutive Duck – and the seventh all-time – to take home the individual conference crown.
Hasay covered the 6,000-meter course at Jefferson Park Golf Course in Seattle in 19:44.95, besting Stanford’s Kathy Kroeger (second, 19:49.43) and Cal’s Deborah Maier (third, 20:01.85). She joins Nicole Blood (2009), Nicole Woodward (1992), Lisa Karnoop (1991), Liz Wilson (1988, 1990), Annette Hand (1987), and Penny Graves (1986) on the list of past conference champions for the women of Oregon.
Following Hasay across the line shortly after was teammate Alex Kosinski, in fourth place (20:09.58), giving the Ducks the best combined finish of any school’s top two runners. On Saturday, however, that would not be good enough. The Pac-10 women’s team title would come all the way down to the 26th-place finisher.
The No. 2 Ducks would see redshirt freshman Lanie Thompson (16th, 20:31.68), senior Zoe Buckman (23rd, 20:40.32) and sophomore Anne Kesselring (24th, 20:41.13) score team points. With 68 points, however, Oregon wound up in a tie with No. 22 Washington, led by freshman Katie Flood (sixth, 20:13.15). All five scorers for the Huskies cracked the top 19.
Jennifer Bergman (seventh, 20:15.32) was the top finisher for No. 6 Arizona, with a triumvirate of Wildcats — Elvin Kibet, Megan Meyer and Hannah Moen — crossing the line in 11th through 13th places, respectively. Arizona’s 65 points, however, were only good enough for second place.
The 26th-place finisher was Alex Gits of Stanford, covering the 6,000 meters in 20:43.57. Gits was the fifth runner for the No. 9 Cardinal on the day, and her performance sealed the Pac-10 women’s title.
Stanford scored 62 points on Saturday, coming out on top in one of the closest Pac-10 races in history. Stephanie Marcy (fifth, 20:12.26), Jessica Tonn (eighth, 20:16.14) and Georgia Griffin (21st, 20:38.01) joined Kroeger and Gits in the Cardinal’s top five.
Oregon freshman Sarah Andrews came across the line in 32nd place (20:59.14), the team’s top non-scorer, in her first official race as a Duck. Sophomore Becca Friday (35th, 21:03.98), redshirt junior Claire Michel (40th, 21:12.60), sophomore Taylor Wallace (41st, 21:14.81), and junior Bronwyn Crossman (65th, 22:02.71) also competed for Oregon.
No. 1 Stanford rolls, Oregon second
Top-ranked Stanford, as expected, dominated the 8,000-meter men’s race, scoring 25 points to No. 3 Oregon’s 56. No. 22 Cal was third with 86 points.
The Cardinal stormed out to a 1-2-3 finish in the race, with Elliott Heath (23:00.46) the individual titleist ahead of teammates Jacob Riley (23:00.57) and Chris Derrick (23:00.59). Oregon junior Luke Puskedra crossed the finish line in fourth place in 23:05.80, the highest-placing Duck on the day.
Seniors Matthew Centrowitz (seventh, 23:17.42) and A.J. Acosta (eighth, 23:43.26) slipped across the finish line ahead of a Cardinal onslaught — Miles Unterreiner, J.T. Sullivan and Erik Olson of Stanford all cracked the top 11. Senior Danny Mercado (13th, 23:51.26) was the only other Duck to finish in the top 20.
Redshirt junior Chris Kwiatkowski continued his breakout campaign, finishing in 24th place (24:07.75) in the first Pac-10 meet of his career to round out the Oregon scorers. Redshirt freshman Ben DeJarnette (26th, 24:14.74) and freshman Parker Stinson (34th, 24:22.30) were also among the Ducks’ top seven.
Also competing for Oregon were redshirt sophomore Bryce Burgess (47th, 24:45.41), redshirt freshman Mitchell Hunt (57th, 25:12.77) and freshman Brian Shrader (62nd, 25:17.41).
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