The men and women of Oregon are prepared for the 2003 NCAA Western Regionals.
For the past week, the teams have discontinued competition and have instead focused on preparation for the race.
The Oregon men feel they have securely placed themselves in the at-large category to gain admittance into the NCAA championships. However, a second-place finish on Saturday would erase any doubts. The top two teams from each region are guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Championships.
The women, though, may not have enough at-large points to be accepted as a team and will likely need a top-two finish at the Western Regionals.
At this point, only Magdalena Sandoval and possibly Eri Macdonald would be invited to the NCAA Championships.
The Oregon men and women may be facing the toughest regional this weekend as six top-30 men’s teams and four top-25 women’s teams will be competing.
The Oregon men beat out all of their Pacific-10 Conference foes in the Conference Championships — with the exception of Stanford — to finish second two weekends ago.
It gave the Ducks at-large points after beating teams it will be competing against for an at-large spot in the NCAA Championships.
If neither Oregon team finishes second and secures an automatic bid, then the top four individuals from non-qualifying teams will automatically be selected to race in the NCAA Championships.
The NCAA will select 13 at-large teams on Nov. 17.
“We think we have enough at-large points from (earlier races),” Brett Holts said. “We should get in with that if we have a terrible day at regionals. Worse comes to worse, we should be OK. But we have left it to chance before, and we have been left out. We want full control.”
The Ducks are confident their battles against other nationally ranked teams will help propel them to the NCAA Championships.
“We have beaten out enough teams to qualify for nationals,” Ryan Andrus said. “We don’t want to leave it to chance, and we are determined to be the team we can be. We have increased determination and desire.”
Most recently, it has been the team’s attitude at practice that has the men’s squad feeling they are peaking at the right time.
The team has “stepped up the intensity in practice,” Eric Logsdon said. “We went back to what has worked in the past.”
“Practice has been intense, and we have had a change in attitude,” Andrus said.