Oregon again proved why it’s one of the best cross country teams in the nation. The women’s team took first place in the meet beating their nearest rival, Stanford, by 20 points. The men came in second with Edward Cheserek claiming his second straight Pac-12 Championship. In a news release from the University of Oregon, Coach Robert Johnson said, “Overall it was a great day for the Ducks. The women executed the same race plan that we’ve used all year and it really came together today. The men still have a little work to do but that was a really impressive performance by Cheserek and Jenkins going 1-2 like that.”
The women performed an almost flawless race plan, running in a tight pack. Freshman, Frida Birge, paced the Ducks finishing 9th and five Oregon runners finished just behind the leaders all within 11 seconds of each other. ”This is awesome. I think this group, coming in this year without really a distinct frontrunner, we didn’t know what to expect, but they’ve really jelled together, they’ve really embraced running together and having a really tight pack and being really selfless and I couldn’t be prouder,” said Oregon women’s assistant coach Maurica Powell.
Edward Cheserek cruises to another title.
The men placed second with Cheserek leading the way, winning the meet in a superb time of 23:23. “That was the plan; to go with about two miles left and just try to finish hard. I felt pretty good today and so I just went for it,” said Cheserek. “Of course it’s an honor to win, but I’m really excited for Eric (Jenkins) finishing second and just really proud of how hard my teammates ran today.” Oregon senior, Erik Jenkins, finished second, just 11 seconds behind Cheserek. Colorado took first in the men’s team division.
Next up for the Duck cross country team is the West Regionals, November 14th at Stanford.
Top Photo by Pac-12 Network
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Raised in the Central Oregon mill town of Prineville beneath deep blue skies and rim rock, I attended the University of Oregon and during my collegiate summers, I worked in a lumber mill and also fought range fires on the Oregon High Desert for the Bureau of Land Management. After graduating from college at the University of Oregon, I swung from being budding hippy to cop work. I’m still wondering about how that came about. I was a police officer with the Port of Portland and after leaving police work, I obtained an MFA degree in Creative Writing from Vermont College. I live in Portland, Oregon with my wife, my daughter and a spunky bichon frise named Pumpkin. I’ve had short stories publishing in two Main Street Press anthologies. Harkness is my first novel.