Cross Country Notes

Cross country is a sport that does not heavily depend on conference standings, unlike most other intercollegiate sports.
Instead, cross country relies on a team’s finish in the regional championship meet and which teams have placed ahead of others in previous contests.
To add another race in which teams have an opportunity to place ahead of possible automatically qualifying teams, conferences hold their own championships each season.
Saturday, nine women’s squads and eight men’s squads — Oregon State and USC do not field men’s squads, while Oregon State also does not have a women’s team
— will travel to Pasadena, Calif., to race against their Pacific-10
Conference rivals and attempt to oust Stanford as the perennial Pac-10 leader. Here is a run-down of those teams.

Arizona
The Arizona men finished second in the Arizona State Invitational, while the women finished fourth. Both teams placed ahead of ranked opponents in the Oct. 11 meet. Many of Arizona’s runners this season are young and need experience to have a shot for the Pac-10 title.

Arizona State
Host of last year’s Pac-10 Championship meet, the Sun Devil squads are both nationally-ranked, with the men’s squad 25th and the women’s squad 17th. The men’s squad finished 20th at the NCAA Championship meet last year, while the women finished 23rd in the same meet.

California
The Golden Bears squads struggled last year, with both teams finishing last in the Pac-10 Championship meet. This year, both the men’s and women’s teams return several veteran runners, and also pick up a talented crop of freshmen.

Stanford
The Stanford women’s squad has won the Pac-10 Championship meet for the past six years, while the men have taken home the title in five of the past six seasons. The men’s squad is ranked first in the nation, and the women are ranked second.

UCLA
The Bruins’ men’s squad finished sixth in the Pac-10 Championship meet last year, while the women finish fourth and went to the NCAA Championship meet. Last year the women had a young squad, and this year they return experience and talent. They are ranked 19th in the nation.

USC
Following last year’s seventh-place finish at the Pac-10 Championships, the USC women have placed fourth, fifth and sixth at their regular-season meets this year. The team is led by junior Brooke Thomas and senior Danielle Morrell.

Washington
Both Husky squads placed fifth in the Pac-10 meet last year, and have shown strong improvement this season. The men finished 13th at the Pre-National meet, while the women finished 11th. Both teams are led by upperclassmen, with a strong contingent of young runners behind them.

Washington State
The Cougars have a new coach this season, and have been running strong in their meets. The women finished sixth and the men seventh in last year’s Pac-10 Championships, while each squad had one individual qualify for the NCAA Championship meet.