EUGENE, Ore. – The University of Oregon men’s and women’s cross country teams proudly host the NCAA West Regional Championships at the Springfield Country Club for the first time ever on Saturday, November 10, and will make their case for invitations for the upcoming NCAA Championships, Monday, November 19 at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind.

The regional men’s 10,000-meter race is set for an 11:00 a.m. start, and the women’s 6,000-meter race will begin at 12:15 p.m.  The site just northeast of Eugene-Springfield is one of the most scenic courses on the West Coast, and featured recent team wins by Duck men and women in the Bill Dellinger Invitational, September 29.

* Fans are encouraged to click here for information on parking and a special bus shuttle system to transport the thousands of fans expected.

The top-two team finishers and top four individuals from non-qualifying teams from each of the nation’s nine regionals held Saturday automatically advance to the NCAA finale. Another 13 at-large teams and two at-large individuals will be added from across the nation to the 31-team, 255-runner M&W fields on the evening of Sunday, November 11. At-large team selection criteria is based on teams’ head-to-head records against other actual and potential NCAA qualifiers.

The No. 1 ranked Duck men are the returning regional champions and one of seven top-30 ranked teams in the men’s race with No. 8 Stanford, No. 10 California, No. 20 Portland, No. 21 UCLA, No. 27 Arizona State and No. 28 Cal Poly. The No. 2 UO women will also face one of the nation’s top harrier fields that features four top-10 ranked programs – No. 1 Stanford, No. 5 Arizona State and No. 7 Washington.

In their most recent action in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, Saturday, October 27, the men won their 15th Pac-10 team title, and the women took second for the highest finish since 1997. Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott and Galen Rupp ran together up front and went 1-2, and Alex Kosinski and Nicole Blood finished 3-4, and the quartet were tabbed All-Pac-10 First Team selections. Four other Duck men were tabbed All-Pac-10 second team selections for their top-14 finishes.

Last year’s Duck men’s regional title was their first since 1989 and fifth since the event was held separately from the league finale beginning in 1982. The men’s regional last year advanced a record nine teams to the collegiate finale  thanks to seven at-large bids, and the region later went on to dominate the NCAA results with seven top-25 placers – Stanford (fourth), Oregon (fifth), Washington (12th), Cal Poly (13th), Portland (18th), Arizona (21st) and UCLA (23rd).

The UO women look for their first NCAA team bid since 2000 and their last top-three regional finish was their win in 1995. Stanford springboarded off its eighth straight regional title last year to later win the NCAA team title, and was one of three regional teams that scored top-15 NCAA finishes with UC Santa Barbara (ninth) and Arizona State (13th).

The Duck program features one of its deepest rosters ever with 31 men and 18 women that includes two All-Americans, four All-Pac-10 selections (3 men, 1 woman), and three Foot Locker champions (2 men, 1 woman) among the 15 runners with Foot Locker experience (10 men, 5 women).

The Ducks are under the guidance of third-year associate athletic director and director of track and field Vin Lananna.

Lananna was tabbed the 2006 Pac-10 and West Regional Men’s Coach of the Year last fall after the Men of Oregon scored their first pair of same season championship victories since 1989, then tied for fifth in the NCAA Championships. The Duck women took fourth in the 2006 Pac-10 Championships for their first back-to-back top-four league finishes since 1997 and ’98. The third-year Duck mentor originally staked his name on the West Coast distance running scene in his 11 seasons as the director of the Stanford program. From the fall of of 1992 through the spring of 2003, the Cardinal claimed 15 West Regional team championships (8M-1995-2002 / 7W – 1994, ’96, ’97, ’99, 2000, ’01, ‘02), along with six individual harrier crowns (3M – 2000, ’01, ’02 / 3W – 1992, ’99, 2002).

Lananna’s West Regional Title Run (*Oregon/Stanford)
Men’s Team Titles (9) – 1995, ’96, ’97, ’98, ’99, 2000, ’01, ‘02, '06*
Women’s Team Titles (7) – 1994, ’96, ’97, ’99, 2000, ’01, ‘02
Men’s Individual Titles (3) – 2000, ’01, ’02
Women’s Individual Titles (3) – 1992, ’99, 2002).

Since the Duck women began varsity competition in 1975, they have finished top-five in the regional/district action 28 of the past 32 years, including 13 team titles – tied for the most of any team with Stanford – along with five runner-up nods and three, third-place efforts. Individually, Milena Glusac’s win in 1994 was the most recent of the Ducks’ eight women’s victories and is second behind Stanford (9), and ahead of Arizona (third, 5).

The Duck men have won five  regional team titles since 1982 – third-best behind both Stanford (first, 10) and Arizona (second, 9). Including races between 1969-1981 when the men’s regional and Pac-8 races were held in conjunction but scored separately, Duck men have won nine individual crowns altogether – the last by Steve Fein in 1999 – and the second-most behind Washington State (11). The regional and league championships were held separately starting in 1982.

More info on the NCAA Championships is available at the www.NCAAsports.com website.