The most successful Oregon team competing in the fall sports season so far isn’t the nationally ranked football team. It’s not the resurgent volleyball team or the first-place women’s soccer squad.
Right now, it’s the men’s cross-country team, better known as the Pacific-10 Champions.
Sophomore Galen Rupp became just the 10th individual champion in school history on Saturday, and three other Ducks earned all Pac-10 honors as the team outdistanced the No. 5 Cardinals by a score of 53-58 at the Stanford Golf Course.
The strength of Rupp’s performance, a sixth-place finish by sophomore Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott, and strong showings by freshman Diego Mercado in ninth, and senior Patrick Werhane in 12th, proved enough to wrestle the title away from the Cardinal for the first time in six years.
“I knew that this team had great talent,” Oregon coach Vin Lananna said in a press release. “But I didn’t know it would come together so quickly. Stanford is a great team and program, and the Pac-10 Conference race always has a great field. We still have things we can improve on, but our men deserve credit for showing a lot of heart and courage today.”
Rupp ran amidst a pack of Cardinal in the early part of the 8K race. Around the halfway point the Cardinal runners fell back a bit and Arizona senior Robert Cheseret, a two-time defending champion, became Rupp’s greatest threat. Rupp opened a slight lead on Cheseret and the rest of field in the sixth kilometer.
“I made a little surge at 6K, then made a bigger one at 7K. Robert has a great kick so I didn’t want to wait too long,” Rupp said.
Rupp said the win accomplished one of the goals the team set for themselves heading into the season.
“The team has been improving all season long, and we were able to take another step today,” Rupp said.
Ducks women finish in fourth
Sophomore Zoe Nelson crossed the finish line first for the team, and 14th overall, as the Ducks earned a fourth-place finish in the Pac-10 Championship.
“My race pace was by pretty even, and the race went by pretty fast,” Nelson said in a press release. “It didn’t feel like a 6K, even though it was, and I didn’t struggle at any point physically.”
Senior Dana Buchanan, junior Sarah Pearson and freshman Bria Wetsch finished 19th, 20th, and 22nd respectively, as the Ducks came in behind No. 1 Stanford, No. 8-ranked Arizona State and Washington.
Lananna said he was pleased with the women’s performance, and that he looks for the team to continue improving until regionals.
“Our women had a great performance,” Lananna said. “In reality this was more like the beginning of our season since we added some key people into the lineup for the first time. We have two weeks until regionals to continue to make progress and try to get to nationals.”
The men’s and women’s teams will compete for NCAA championship invites in the NCAA West Regional on Nov. 11 at Blue Lake Park in Portland.