Oregon cross-country fans may want to mark Sept. 29 as a day they don’t want to miss.
That’s the day the second-annual Bill Dellinger Invitational at the Springfield Country Club will feature three teams that finished in the top five at the 2006 NCAA Cross Country Championships and four individuals who finished in the top 15.
Headlining the men’s race will be the 2006 Dellinger Invitational champions and NCAA fifth-place finishers Oregon and NCAA runners-up Wisconsin. The Ducks and Badgers each return their top scorers from last year’s NCAA meet in Oregon junior Galen Rupp (6th) and Wisconsin junior Stuart Eagon (11th).
Other NCAA qualifying teams in the meet will be Washington (12th), Cal Poly (13th), Portland (18th), UCLA (23rd) and Alabama (31st). UTEP, a perennial contender that did not make the NCAA Championships last year, will also be in the race. UTEP’s Stephen Samoei, who finished 13th at the NCAA Championships, will be one of the main challengers to Rupp and Eagon.
BYU’s Josh Rohatinsky, the eventual NCAA champion, won last year’s race at Alton Baker Park by 11 seconds over Rupp. Oregon’s Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott was fourth and Diego Mercado was seventh.
The top women’s team in the field will be Arkansas who, like the Oregon men, are defending meet champs and finished in fifth place at the NCAA meet. The rest of the teams include returning NCAA qualifiers Georgia (15th), BYU (22nd), Colorado State (24th) and Wake Forest (27th). Ten others teams, including Oregon State, the host Ducks and Portland will toe the line as well.
Another BYU runner, Kassi Anderson, won last year’s women’s race. Anderson, a senior this year, went on to place sixth at the NCAA meet.