While Oregon’s football team is busy scrapping with Andrew Luck and Stanford this weekend, the Ducks’ cross country team will be in Palo Alto fighting a battle of their own. The Cardinal is hosting the NCAA West Regional meet Saturday on the Stanford Golf Course. The top two teams on both the men’s and women’s side will earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. on Nov. 21.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4337&SPID=238&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205329852&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
The men’s race, which takes place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, features No. 6 Stanford, No. 8 Portland, No. 17 Oregon and No. 21 UCLA. The men, who will be competing at a 10,000-meter course for the first time this year, are coming off a respectable third-place showing at the Pac-12 Championships on Oct. 29. At that race senior Luke Puskedra (fifth) and sophomore Parker Stinson (seventh) set the pace for the Ducks, followed by three freshmen (Jeramy Elkaim, Lukas Verzbicas, Ryan Pickering).@@same@@
In addition to those entries, the Ducks will send 10 other runners to Stanford. Senior Chris Kwiatkowski, junior Bryce Burgess and sophomores Tim Costin, Ben DeJarnette, Mitch Hunt and Brian Shrader will take the trip with freshmen Boru Guyota, Matt Jablonski, Cole Watson and Daniel Winn.@@same@@
Puskedra is clearly the most seasoned runner for the men in regional competition. He finished fourth at the 2010 NCAA West Regional after placing sixth the previous two years. Coming into Saturday’s competition, Puskedra has a streak of seven consecutive top-10 finishes dating back to his junior season. DeJarnette, Stinson and Burgess will be running in their second regional race.@@same@@
Like the men’s side, the women’s race on Saturday will be chock-full of top teams from around the nation. When the Ducks line up at 11 a.m., they will go toe-to-toe with No. 6 Washington, No. 8 Stanford, No. 11 Oregon, No. 16 Arizona, No. 26 California and No. 27 San Francisco.@@http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/cross-country-women/d1@@
Fortunately for the Ducks, the women will bring a wealth of experience into their race. Junior Jordan Hasay is the defending women’s West Regional champion and only four runners for the team have not previously run in a regional competition. Hasay and senior Claire Michel will be competing in their third West Regional, while senior Bronwyn Crossman, juniors Becca Friday and Anne Kesselring and sophomore Lanie Thompson will run in the meet for the second time. Freshmen Molly Grabill and Megan Patrignelli, along with juniors Sarah Penney and Taylor Wallace, will be making their regional debuts. In 2010, Thompson finished 27th, while Kesselring was 36th. Michel placed 26th in the West Regional in 2009.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4335&SPID=238&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=3759217&Q_SEASON=2011@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4337&SPID=238&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205329852&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
Two automatic NCAAs bids will be offered for the top finishers this weekend and an additional 13 men’s and women’s teams will be extended at-large bids on Sunday. Also, the top four individuals not on the top two regional teams will be guaranteed selection to the NCAA Championships, provided that they have finished in the Regional top 25. Two additional individuals will receive at-large bids on Sunday.