Going into the NCAA Championships, the Oregon men’s cross country team was ranked No. 14 in the nation, but on the Furman University cross country course on Monday, they ran to a 13th place finish.
Oregon finished with 389 points, while the winner, Colorado, edged Stanford’s 91 points by one to tie the narrowest margin of victory in NCAA history. Regional foe Portland placed seventh with 273 points.
Junior Jason Hartmann, who has achieved All-American status in the two years previous by finishing 37th in 1999 and 35th in 2000, finished in 50th with a time of 30:21 and as a result, was denied in his attempt at a third All-American title. The top-30 runners as well as the top-30 American finishers receive the honor of All-American, and the last runner to achieve the title finished 10 seconds ahead of Hartmann.
“I was disappointed with myself in that the team was only a few points away from finishing a little higher,” Hartmann said. “Overall, I was excited how the team stepped up.
“Our goal at the start was to finish top 15, and we can certainly build off this next year.”
Oregon senior Adam Bergquist ran another good race in the final cross country meet of his career, placing 60th with a time of 30:29. Throughout the race, Bergquist moved up steadily and finished strong at the end.
“The last three (kilometers), I was hurting pretty bad, but still tried to pass as many guys as I could,” he said. “I was able to relax on the downhill in the ninth kilometer and find a little strength there.”
Other Oregon scorers included Brett Holts (96th, 30:58), John Lucas (117th, 31:09) and Eric Logsdon (156th, 31:32). Noel Paulson (176th, 31:48) and Ryan Andrus (236th, 33:13) also ran for the Ducks.
True freshman Seth Pilkington, who sat out of the Western Regional Championships in hopes that he would be ready for the national meet, did not compete. Pilkington collapsed in his previous trip to Furman at the pre-nationals and has not finished a race for the Ducks since his first collegiate competition on Sept. 29, when he finished second on the squad.
Overall, head coach Martin Smith was pleased with his team’s effort against the top teams in the nation.
“This was our best performance as a group this season, and at the most difficult level,” he said. “We exceeded where we were ranked coming in, and ran with a lot of poise.”
Eastern Michigan’s Boaz Chboiywo won the individual title with a time of 28:47, breaking the 10K course record by seven seconds.
Michigan’s freshman Alan Webb, who Oregonians remember from last May’s Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field where he broke the high school record in the mile (3:53.43), placed 10th. Michigan placed 11th as a team.