Cross country is not just an individual sport; it’s also a team sport. It might be hard to understand from the scoring, but judging from the way the women ran the Willamette Invitational on Saturday, you would think they always run together.
Oh, they do — it’s called practice.
“Being able to hang with teammates in mid-race can be a real advantage running in huge competitive fields,” head coach Tom Heinonen said. “Erinn Gulbrandsen’s performance was a significant step, and enabled her, Nicole Feest and Eri Macdonald to race together through much of last weekend’s race.”
Gulbrandsen, a senior, Feest, a true freshman, and Macdonald, a redshirt junior, finished the race only six seconds apart Saturday, coming in 25th, 26th and 28th, respectively.
Six other Ducks ran in pairs Saturday, each finishing within two seconds of their running partner. Redshirt junior Alicia Snyder-Carlson and freshman Krissy Sonniksen finished at 58th and 60th, among other Oregon runners.

Injury update
A pair of Oregon runners, Carrie Zografos and Magdalena Sandoval, are scheduled to be training normally by the end of the week, joining their teammates in preparing for Pre-Nationals.
“(They) are much improved,” Heinonen said.

Still off on the right foot
Feest finished third for the Ducks on Saturday, two places ahead of where she finished at her first meet the week prior.
“Nicole felt a lot calmer and more in control in her second race than her first,” Heinonen said. “Collegiate racing is a dramatically different experience from high school. With more experience, she’ll just get better and better.”

Adding a new member
The women harriers added Eleanor Gordon to their team this week. Gordon is a freshman from South Eugene High School. She finished 39th at Willamette while running unattached. Had she been running for Oregon, that finish would have put her 5th among the Oregon women that day.

Men working hard for Pre-Nationals
The men’s cross country team is in the middle of a three-week training stint between the Roy Griak Invitational and the Pre-National meet. The team finished first at the Griak and has climbed to a fifth-place ranking in the latest national poll.