One Oregon track star did not run at Saturday’s Mike Hodges Invitational, held at Clackamas Community College. Another one did. And the Duck men and women used the meet as an exhibition of team strength and depth.
Oregon redshirt sophomore Andrew Wheating and sophomore Matthew Centrowitz, running unattached, crossed the finish line together in 19:40 to win the men’s four-mile race. The pair was quickly followed by a flock of Ducks, including freshman Bryce Burgess, also running unattached. Eight of the top 10 men’s finishers were Oregon runners. Oregon, the unanimous top-ranked team in the nation, handily beat Southern Oregon, Willamette and No. 4 Portland, respectively, to secure the men’s team title. The Pilots, like the Ducks, held out top runners such as David Kinsella and Alfred Kipchumba to test their depth.
Senior Galen Rupp, who was expected to run the Mike Hodges, did not compete and will likely hold off his cross country debut until the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, which the Ducks will host on Oct. 31. Rupp, the NCAA individual runner-up in 2007, has been recuperating and refocusing after competing in August’s Beijing Olympics, where he finished 13th in the 10,000m.
Conversely, Wheating was not expected to run the Mike Hodges, and competed in the 800m at the Beijing Olympics, where he failed to make it past the preliminary rounds. Wheating’s last cross country race was in last year’s Pac-10 Championships, where he earned All-Pac-10 second team honors with a 14th-place finish (sixth among the Duck men, another indicator of the team’s depth).
Centrowitz remains a wild card that Oregon head coach Vin Lananna may not be able to play. The son of former Oregon distance great Matt Centrowitz ran unattached at the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Oct. 4, securing a ninth-place finish by passing several runners in the final straightaway.
Lananna declined to comment after the Dellinger about the possibility of Centrowitz suiting up for the Ducks this year, though Lananna did say he instructed Centrowitz to run “as though he was wearing an Oregon uniform.”
Redshirt senior Chris Winter followed up his strong start to the season (individual victory at Sept. 4’s Pre’s Trail Run, 20th-place finish and scorer at the Dellinger) by taking third place just behind Centrowitz and Wheating, running 19:42. Winter was followed in short succession by Eric Dettman (fourth, 19:56), Isaac Stoutenburgh (fifth, 19:57), Matt Dettman (sixth, 20:06), and Vincent D’Onofrio (eight, 20:11). Burgess finished in 10th place with a time of 20:15.
A.J. Casteel finished in 31st place (21:01) and David Bondi finished 62nd (21:38). Freshman Walker Augustyniak, running unattached, finished 44th (21:19).
Scherf, Buckman pace women to victory
No Alex Kosinski? No Nicole Blood? No problem for the Oregon women, as senior transfer Lindsey Scherf (17:05) and sophomore Zoe Buckman (17:15) finished 1-2 as the Ducks placed six runners in the top 10 and captured the team title for an Oregon sweep.
Senior Zoe Nelson (17:29) and sophomore Betsy Bies (17:31) took the fourth and fifth overall spots in the 6,000m race. Three Portland runners followed in close succession, followed by freshman Bronwyn Crossman (17:39) and junior Brooke Giuffre (17:42).
Sophomore Hayley Belli finished 15th (18:04) and junior Lauren Zaludek finished 33rd (18:46). Freshman Laurie Stoutenburgh ran unattached and finished 74th (20:15).
Running Club makes their own mark
The UO Running Club competed in the Mike Hodges and had a strong overall showing, as the men finished fifth overall and the women finished seventh. Thirty-one runners participated in the meet.
On the men’s side, senior Keith Laverty finished in 11th place, highest of any Running Club runner, in 20:17. Sophomore Gino Gaddini (48th, 21:23) and junior Brad Russell (59th, 21:31) rounded out the top three finishers.
The top three women’s finishers were junior Kristen Mohror (35th, 18:57), Kelsey Stilson (53rd, 19:23) and Anne Hagy (70th, 20:08).
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