In a surprising turn of events, senior Laura Harmon will be the lone Duck harrier representing Oregon at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 22, as she placed ninth overall in the women’s NCAA West Regional on Saturday.
Harmon, who has been dominant all season long, was expected to qualify individually and did so as the second individual qualifier (ninth, 20 minutes, 52 seconds). The first seven finishers were from Stanford and Arizona State, who by finishing first and second at the regional qualified their entire teams.
“I was a little disappointed with the place because I was hoping to get top-five,” Harmon said. “But the bigger thing was to get to nationals, so I can’t be too upset.”
Although Harmon wasn’t as pleased with her finish as she would have liked, she chalked it up as an experience that should help her at the national meet.
“I learned a lot of what I’m going to have to do,” Harmon said. “I’m anticipating a better race (at nationals). I need to be more reactive.”
Harmon is the third Duck woman in the past three years to qualify for the NCAA meet, following Carrie Zografos’ 33rd place finish in 2002 and Magdalena Sandoval’s appearance in 2003.
The real shock came in the men’s race, where no runner will be representing the storied Oregon cross country program at the NCAA meet for the first time since 1991. The Ducks, who finished sixth with 196 points, will also be missing the national championships for the first time as a team since 2000.
Senior All-Americans Eric Logsdon and Ryan Andrus just missed qualifying individually for the championship meet under the NCAA’s complex system for selecting individual at-large bids. The first four runners at each regional not hailing from a qualifying team receive individual at-large bids to the national meet. Logsdon and Andrus finished eighth (30:41) and 11th (30:43) overall and fifth and sixth among those on teams that didn’t qualify.
For the women’s team, freshman Sarah Pearson ran her best race of the season, placing 58th (22:07) and trailing only Harmon on the Duck squad.
“I felt more confident coming into today than the Pac-10s,” said Pearson, whose foot injury earlier in the season caused her to miss the Pre-NCAA Invitational in October. “I felt stronger this time.”
Juniors Mandi Fitz-Gustafson (65th, 22:15), Sara Schaaf (74th, 22:24), and Haripurkh Khalsa (90th, 22:37) also contributed to the Ducks’ eighth place finish.
On the youthful men’s squad, sophomore Patrick Werhane finished 40th overall (31:32) and third among Duck runners, his highest finish in his two-year career. Freshman Chris Winter (71st, 32:36) and sophomore Kyle Alcorn (77th, 32:37) rounded out the scoring on the 8K course.
The disappointing regional finish marked the end of Logsdon’s and Andrus’ remarkable cross country careers. Logsdon helped the Ducks to a fifth-place finish at nationals in 2002 and earned All-American honors in 2003 with his top-30 placing at the NCAA Championship meet. The track and field All-American in the 5,000-meter event will finish up his track eligibility in spring.
Andrus, who graduated in the spring and plans to accept a job at Intel in Hillsboro after fall term, ends a collegiate career that started in 1997. After a mission trip and a transfer, Andrus ends his stay at Oregon as an
All-American in cross country and indoor track along with breaking into the Oregon all-time list (eighth) in the 10,000 meters.
The No. 1 Stanford women defeated No. 7 Arizona State for their sixth straight team title. The men posted similar results, as the No.
2 Cardinal finished ahead of the No. 8 Sun Devils.
The women’s West Regional proved to be one of the toughest in the country as the third-through-sixth-place teams earned at-large bids to the NCAA meet based on their regular season records.
No. 17 UC Santa Barbara, No. 25 Washington, No. 31 UCLA and No. 32 Idaho will all be competing in Indiana on Nov. 22.
No. 6 Cal Poly was the only
at-large team from the West Regional to receive a men’s bid.

Beau Eastes is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald