The goal throughout the season for the men’s cross country team was to improve with every race, and the Ducks’ 13th-place finish at the NCAA Championships is a clear sign of their progress.
Ranked 13th in the preseason coaches’ poll, the Ducks dropped to 16th in the second week and then remained near 18th most of the season. They had moved up to 14th after the Western Regionals as they headed into the nationals, where they came up with a run that lived up to their expectations.
Senior captain Adam Bergquist, the only runner the Ducks will lose to graduation this year, was pleased with the team’s finish.
“Throughout the whole season, as a team we felt like we improved basically each and every race, then at the highest level, at nationals, we performed as well as we wanted to,” Bergquist said.
Redshirt freshman Ryan Andrus, who said he was disappointed with his own effort at nationals, said that because the team will only lose Bergquist, it will come back even stronger next year.
“I think the rest of the guys stepped it up, and the 13th-place finish was a great accomplishment for this team this year,” Andrus said. “We can obviously move up from there in the next few years.”
Both Bergquist and Andrus achieved one of the seven spots on the annual Pacific-10 Conference All-Academic team. Sophomore Erinn Gulbrandsen received one of the spots on the women’s team. The Ducks also placed four men and four women on the honorable mention lists.
The men’s team’s NCAA invitation will be beneficial in the coming years. Six runners on the squad, including two freshmen, have national experience.
On the women’s side, head coach Tom Heinonen had a sub-par season for his standards, going unranked throughout the fall. Heinonen has led 24 teams to national appearances in his 27 years as Oregon head coach, with 18 of those teams achieving top-10 status.
Many of Heinonen’s runners were primarily middle distance track runners and had to make the adjustment to competing in longer distances.
Junior Carrie Zografos, who placed first for the Ducks in all but one of her five races, said the team used this season as a learning year for the spring’s track season and next fall’s cross country campaign.
“We were disappointed, but will find more success during track thanks to our experience with cross country,” Zografos said. “Next year, we’re going to mentally be a lot stronger.”
All of Heinonen’s runners will be back next year and be ready for another run at the national competition.