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* Click here to see a photo gallery of race action pix.
SUNRIVER, Ore. – The University of Oregon men’s and women’s cross country teams cruised to team and individual wins Saturday in the Sunriver Open, their season opener held at the Meadows Golf Course. The Oregon women defeated Portland State, 19-42, and the Men of Oregon beat Portland State, 15-50. Junior Zoe Nelson won the 3-mile individual women’s race (16:56.5) just ahead of freshman teammate Elizabeth Bies (second, 16:57.8). The pair ran together for most the first 2/3 of the race before Nelson pulled away slightly the last mile. “Coach told us to go out and run controlled and together the first two miles, and see where we were at and go from there,” Nelson said. “You need to be careful at altitude to be smart early on. It was a great course – I liked the mile laps because it made it go by a little quicker compared to the courses with the big loops. The whole team was excited about getting back into racing. We have a great team, and it’s fun to keep seeing everyone progressing and maturing.” The Duck women claimed two more of the top five placings overall, courtesy of senior Sarah Pearson (fourth, 17:07.1) and sophomore and Brown transfer Brooke Giuffre (fifth, 17:08.5). Oregon’s other finishers included redshirt freshman Erin Lewis (seventh, 17:21.4), freshmen Claire Michel (eighth, 17:22.3) and Haley Belli (ninth, 17:31.9) and sophomores Lauren Zaludek (10th, 18:24.4) and Berkeley Aldinger-Gibson (11th, 19:33.3). The Duck roster Saturday featured four new faces from a heralded recruiting class that also included Alexdra Kosinski. Bies’ effort was the third straight season opener that a freshman scored a top two finish overall, following the lead of Nelson and Sammons who won Pier Park Preview races in 2005 and ’06, respectively. “For my first collegiate race, I was really excited yet felt relaxed beforehand,” Bies said. “I tried to stay in control and run with Zoe, and hung fairly well till the last mile when she pulled away a little. It’s been a great first week of training, and it’s such a fun team and coaching staff to be around. I signed with the team last fall and have been constantly thinking about running for UO ever since then. This was a special race for me, especially after I got to watch the team run the Dellinger meet last fall, and now be a part of it.” On the men’s side, the Ducks had their front nine in the front pack from the gun en route to nine of the top 12 places overall in the 4-mile contest. At the finish, Max King of the Oregon Track Club Elite team won by seven seconds (19:17.0) over the Duck trio of redshirt sophomore Jon Thomas (second, 19:24.4), redshirt freshman Daniel Mercado (third, 19:24.6) and junior Scott Wall (fourth, 19:24.9). “The strategy was to keep our group of nine runners up front for as long as possible,” Wall said. “We got out pretty hard then settled in at a comfortable pace. We were 5:02 for the first mile, a little faster the second mile, then consciously picked it up the third and fourth miles, although we still felt fairly comfortable. Coach said to press the pace a little the last mile so we did. This was a positive lead-in for the Dellinger race which will have a great field.” Graduate student Joaquin Chapa (sixth, 19:25.6) and redshirt freshman Matthew Dettman (seventh, 19:28.5) rounded out scoring for Oregon in their first races in a UO singlet. “It was fun to look around the second mile and see only Oregon runners so it was cool to be able to control the race,” Chapa said. “I felt great the first three miles, and accelerated the last mile. It was fun to be a cross country runner again, and I have been thinking about this race all summer long. Getting to run for Oregon this fall has been a real motivation and when I took my sweats off today. I was so happy – I’ve been cheering for the Ducks for my whole life and now was one finally.” Other Duck finishers included redshirt senior Michael McGrtah (eighth, 19:32.4), redshirt freshman Andrew Acosta (ninth, 19:37.6), redshirt freshman Eric Dettman (11th, 19:55.3) and senior James Withers (12th, 20:06.3). The Oregon squads enjoyed their first ever season opener in Sunriver, located on the eastern edge of the Cascade Mountains, just south of the city of Bend. The squads have been training in the popular vacation spot the past week and will continue their training camp as they look ahead to their second of several meets in the state of Oregon, the second annual Bill Dellinger Invitational which will be held Saturday, September 29 at the Springfield Country Club. “It was a good opening performance,” Oregon director of track and field Vin Lananna said. “You can tell most of the runners had a great summer of training. It was great to have Portland State join us in this beautiful location, and we are very grateful to the course for letting us host the meet here. Camp has gone great so far. The kids have trained at a higher level than ever before these first two weeks. They have also had a great camaraderie and have been enjoying each other’s company.”
FINAL RESULTS
Sunriver Open
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