Ducks Ready To Toe Line At Nationals

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Six elite men's runners sat on a dais for a press conference Friday. They were there to preview the NCAA cross country championship to be contested Saturday morning.

Of the six, Oregon's Edward Cheserek was the most soft-spoken. But the other five were struck completely dumb by the second question posed from the pool of reporters in attendance.

How, they were asked, could the three-time champion Cheserek be beaten? The answer: silence, and some furtive glances to see if any of the five was willing to bite.

"When you talk about how to beat Edward Cheserek, there's no real plan," said Syracuse junior Justyn Knight (below), who was fourth at nationals last year and is undefeated this fall. "He's a talented guy. His records speak for themselves. He can win with sit-and-kick, or he can win by stringing out the race. I think the best thing is to prepare for both, and then just go out and have fun."

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The NCAA cross country championships begin Saturday at 8 a.m. PT with the 6-kilometer women's race, followed by the 10k men's race an hour later. The No. 13 UO men could field five runners with NCAA meet experience, as they look to repeat last year's podium finish. The No. 12 Oregon women have four NCAA meet veterans, who have helped the team make nationals for the 10th straight season.

Unlike the men's team, the UO women don't boast a pre-race favorite for the individual title. But heralded freshman Katie Rainsberger will be making her first appearance at nationals. Having won the team title in 2012, the women are looking to build on a third-place finish last year — and have tailored their training schedule all fall to do just that, lest too many conclusions be drawn from their fourth-place finish at the conference meet.

Cheserek will be racing for his record fourth individual NCAA cross country title, and his 16th title in track and cross country. Nobody in history has accomplished either feat. But as usual, his pre-race comments Friday deflected individual attention on himself.

"My main focus is on the team," Cheserek said. "That's why I run out there."

Perhaps, then, Futsum Zienasellasse has the best formula for conquering King Cheserek?

Zienasellasse finished fourth in 2013 and third in 2014 behind Cheserek, on the same LaVern Gibson Championship Course that will host Saturday's race. He also happens to be a member of the top-ranked Northern Arizona men's team.

"We all know Cheserek has been one of the greatest NCAA runners to come through college," Zienasellasse said Friday. "Hearing him in interviews, I think the best way to beat Cheserek is by beating his team. He seems like a team player, so that's the way to beat him."

For the past three years, that's been about the only way to do it.

A year ago in Louisville, Patrick Tiernan of Villanova sought to push the pace, and did so through eight kilometers. But down the stretch, Cheserek had enough left in the tank to sustain a victorious effort, while Tiernan dropped off.

Tiernan was asked Friday what he learned from that experience.

"I think I learned that going out that hard makes you feel pretty crappy at 8k," he said, drawing laughter from the press pool. "No, but I learned a lot of things. … This season for me's been about getting a lot stronger over that last mile, 2k. You try to learn from it, and for me I think I've gotten a lot stronger."

Unlike Zienasellasse, Tiernan doesn't have the luxury of relying on the team race to get the upper hand on Cheserek. Tiernan will be running as an individual, along with one Villanova teammate who qualified for nationals.

"Yeah, Ed is the most intimidating guy on paper," said Tiernan, who like Cheserek said Friday he's in the best shape of his life. "But you're not just racing him. I'm racing 250 other guys on the course. You can't go into it with a single-minded aspect.

"I'm not saying there's a specific way to beat him, but there's ways to win races. If everybody plays to their strengths, that's the way to do it."

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Big Ten champion Morgan McDonald of Wisconsin (above) is taking a page from Cheserek, and focusing on the team race. But he was willing to acknowledge the challenge of racing a competitor with the credentials of Cheserek.

"I did see a quote one time, that, the best race tactic is to be better than anybody else," McDonald said. "With that in mind, Ed's really tough to compete against mentally."

Adding to the challenge for the rest of the field is that Cheserek appears to be in his comfort zone this weekend.

On Friday, he called LaVern Gibson "my favorite course," and said his upset win here as a freshman in 2013 was his favorite memory from cross country.

"I was a small kid in college, and I wasn't the favorite to win the race," Cheserek recalled of the day he unseated the seemingly unbeatable Kennedy Kithuka of Texas Tech. "I was with the big boys."

Now, Cheserek is one of the big boys himself, and trying to hold off all the other big boys who will be gunning for him Saturday.

And if others consider him the favorite to win an unprecedented fourth straight title, Cheserek is prepared for any result.

"It's fun sometimes to lose," he said. "You learn something. You've got to be a sportsman. As a sportsman you've got to learn how to lose and how to win. I'll keep training hard, keep focused, let it go and move on."