Out with Galen Rupp, in with Jordan Hasay. The freshman phenom from Arroyo Grande, Calif., came into the cross country season with high expectations and put on a show at the Bill Dellinger Invitational, Oregon’s first home meet of the season. Hasay finished sixth overall on the Springfield Country Club course, second among Ducks (to Alex Kosinski) as the Oregon women finished second to eventual national champion Villanova.
The Oregon men, in a veritable rebuilding mode after losing Rupp and Shadrack Biwott, entered the season ranked No. 1 but had less pressure internally. The Ducks opened at Dellinger with a third-place finish, behind Alabama and Brigham Young University.
At the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, the women made their biggest case yet for national title contention. Nicole Blood became the first Oregon women’s Pac-10 individual champion in 17 years as the Ducks finished a close second to defending national champion Washington. The Duck men placed three runners in the top eight but succumbed to Stanford, whose runners held down the top three places.
The NCAA West Regional saw the Oregon women yet again finish second to Washington, while the men appeared to take a step back in finishing third to Stanford and Portland. All that was thrown out, however, at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Nov. 23 in Terre Haute, Ind. The Duck men placed four runners in the top 31 to come home the NCAA runners-up (to Oklahoma State), while Hasay, who took 18th place, led the women to a ninth-place finish.
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