In the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, Oregon’s three seniors — Ryan Andrus, Eric Logsdon and Laura Harmon — made
their final run at a conference
championship a memorable one.
Harmon, who battled a minor hamstring injury earlier in the week, finished fourth overall in the 6K race (20 minutes, 56 seconds) at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, 15 positions higher than her
previous best showing at the league finals (19th, 2002).
“(My hamstring) felt pretty good today, and I’m looking forward to regionals,” Harmon said. “Each race I get more and more confident
and closer to my goal of getting
to nationals.”
Harmon’s top-six finish earned her All-Pac-10 First Team cross country honors for the first time.
In the following race, Andrus and Logsdon finished eighth (24:39) and 12th (24:44), respectively, in the 8K men’s championship, leading the Duck harriers to a third-place finish. Their placing in the top-12 garnered both athletes Pac-10 Second Team honors for the second year in a row.
“We went through the first mile in 4:42 and were about 20th, then started to gradually move up and were about 12th or 13th with a mile to go,” Andrus said. “Afterwards, I felt pretty good and was happy how it turned out.”
Sophomore’s Patrick Werhane and Kyle Alcorn both finished strong for the Ducks, finishing 22nd (25:09) and 25th (25:15), respectively. Their outings, along with freshman Chris Winter’s 39th place finish (25:41), contributed to the Duck men’s 105-point third-place finish. Two-time defending national champion Stanford won the
meet with 37 points, followed by
ninth-ranked Arizona State with
64 points.
“I’m proud of how they ran today,” head coach Martin Smith said.
Smith said the race was the
best of the season for the young
Duck squad.
“This was a tough course and a tough field,” Smith said about the meet, which consisted of four other top-40 teams. “The guys showed patience and determination, especially in the critical last one to
two miles, where every place is
so important.”
Logsdon agreed with his coach.
“The team ran really well,” Logsdon said. “This conference is so deep that it is always going to be a good field.”
As a team, the women finished seventh (182 points) without two of coach Marnie Mason’s top five runners. Freshman Katie Leary and Heather Fitz-Gustafson were sidelined due to injury, leaving the women’s squad lacking the depth it usually enjoys. Junior Mandi Fitz-Gustafson, competing in her first season since 2002, placed 37th (22:17) for the Ducks, her strongest finish of the season. Following Harmon and Fitz-Gustafson were freshman Sarah Pearson (47th, 22:40), junior Haripurkh Khalsa (56th, 22:46) and freshman Kasey Harwood (72nd, 23:24).
Mason said she was disappointed about not finishing in the top half of the conference, but did see several bright spots.
“Laura (Harmon) ran a great race, as did Mandi (Fitz-Gustafson),” Mason said. “Sarah (Pearson) had another good, consistent effort, and all the freshmen are being challenged by a whole new level of competition and learning so much every race. We have a lot to look forward to as we mature and add more talent each year.”
No. 1 Stanford won the meet (30 points) with four runners in the top 10. Arizona State (second, 47 points) and Washington (third, 100 points) followed the Cardinal women.
The men and women’s teams have an off-week this weekend before they head to Fresno, Calif., on Nov. 12
for the NCAA West Regional
Championships.

Beau Eastes is a freelance
reporter for the Daily Emerald