Carrie Zografos, one of two seniors on the Oregon women’s cross country team and the team’s 2001 MVP, is closing in on the end of her college cross country career.
Zografos, a redshirt senior, has led the squad in all three meets she has raced in this season. She sat out this season’s Willamette Invitational with a slight
injury.
Zografos graduated in 1998 from Central Catholic High School in Portland. While in high school, she competed in the 4A state track meet, running the 400-meters, 300-meter hurdles, 4×100-meter relay and 4×400-meter relay.
After graduation, Zografos went to Colorado, taking 10th in the 1999 Big 12 finale in the 600-meter race. In the 1999 cross country season, Zografos finished as the eighth runner for the Buffaloes, who finished eighth overall in the NCAA Championships.
Zografos transferred to Oregon in the summer of 2000, and ran in the top seven in five races during her first season in Eugene, then lowered the school record in the steeplechase during the 2001 track and field season.
During the 2001 cross country season, Zografos paced the Ducks in the Pacific-10 Conference Championship, finishing 35th. She led the squad in three of the other four meets she raced in, and finished fifth for Oregon in the other despite an illness. Zografos redshirted the 2002 track season.
After regionals on Saturday, Zografos may run in the NCAA Championships if either she or her team qualifies. After that, track and field starts its indoor season in mid-January.

Playing the Polls
In the weekly national cross country poll, the Oregon men have been ranked fifth for the past five polls. The only Pac-10 or West region team ranked ahead
of the Ducks is Stanford, who has been ranked No. 1 nationally for the entire season.
The Oregon women have been pushing the edges of the rankings all season, after an improved finish at the Sept. 28 Roy Griak Invitational. In the last poll, released Nov. 4, the Ducks received four votes, putting them at 37th nationally.

Season scorecard
If a team doesn’t finish as one of the top two at their regional championship, they can still be one of the 13 teams to qualify for an at-large berth into the national meet.
The 13 teams are selected based on their regional finish and regular season wins against teams that did qualify.
Between three meets, the Oregon women have finished above 17 different teams that are potential automatic qualifiers.
On the men’s side, the Ducks have placed above 21 potential qualifiers in two meets, including
No. 4 Wisconsin at the Griak
Invitational.

Young Blood
Redshirt freshman Will Viviani finished as the seventh runner for the Oregon men at the Griak Invitational, as he and freshman Nicole Feest were the only freshmen runners to make the trek to Minn. for the meet.
Viviani also finished seventh for the Ducks at the Pac-10 Championships.
Feest and freshman Eleanor Gordon have run close to each other in their past two meets. The pair finished first and second overall at the Beaver Classic, and sixth and seventh for the Ducks at the Pac-10 Championship.
With these three, plus the many other freshmen runners waiting in the wings, Oregon’s strong running tradition will stay in the national fray — at least for the near future.