The Ducks flocked together again this weekend.
Oregon’s women’s cross country team finished 18th at the Pre-National meet on Saturday. The Ducks’ five scoring runners all finished within one minute of each other, while Oregon edged out three top-40 teams.
“I thought we competed hard and competed well,” Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen said.
Oregon senior Carrie Zografos was the top finisher for the Ducks, running the course in 21 minutes and 35 seconds and finishing 53rd overall. Zografos has finished first for the Ducks in both of the races she has run this season.
Junior Laura Harmon finished second for the Ducks, just behind Zografos. Harmon took 63rd overall, with a time of 21:41.
Junior Eri Macdonald finished 112th overall and third for the Ducks, with a time of 22:09, and junior Magdalena Sandoval ran the course in 22:14, finishing fourth for the Ducks and 122nd overall. Senior Erinn Gulbrandsen finished fifth for the Ducks, 153rd overall, with a time of 22:30.
“Carrie and Laura were solid from start to finish,” Heinonen said. “They moved up in the second half and finished strongly. Eri ran her best cross country race ever, and Magdalena hung on given how little running she’s been able to do in the past two weeks. Erinn ran well throughout the race for the second meet in a row — that will help us for later.”
The Ducks stayed close together in the early part of the race, with the top three only two seconds apart at the mid-point — Harmon (10:46), Zografos (10:47) and Sandoval (10:49). Macdonald (10:57) and Gulbrandsen (11:03) followed close behind.
In the second half of the race, the Ducks’ top three runners kept their pace up. Zografos ran only one second slower on the second half, while Harmon only added five seconds and Macdonald added 15.
Redshirt junior Alicia Snyder-Carlson finished 191st overall, and sixth for the Ducks, in 23:02. Freshman Nicole Feest finished seventh for the Ducks, and 219th overall, running the course in 23:07.
Florida State, ranked 31st in the nation, finished 19th at the meet with 505 points, while 29th-ranked Dartmouth finished 20th with 509 points. Idaho, ranked 37th nationally, finished 24th with 552 points. Oregon had 503 points.
“We helped ourselves by beating Florida State and Dartmouth. The race was as big as nationals in numbers and as important as nationals in quality, and we handled the pressure well,” Heinonen said.
Pacific-10 Conference power Stanford, ranked second nationally, won the race with 57 points. The top four Cardinal finishers placed second, third, fourth and ninth. The first-place runner was Florida State’s Vicky Gill, who ran the course in 19 minutes and 55 seconds.
Saturday, the men’s and women’s cross country teams send squads to Corvallis for the Beaver Classic. Oregon will rest its top runners for the Pac-10 Championships on Nov. 2.