UO creates noise in Indiana
■ Oregon women gain
national recognition at the
Pre-NCAAs, despite losing
Katie Crabbto injury again
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
Pollsters took notice of the Ore
gon women’s cross country team
last weekend.
Heading into Saturday’s na
tional showcase at the Pre
NCAAs in Bloomington, Ind.,
Oregon was receiving votes at the
No. 37 spot.
Running in a field that featured
18 of the top-25 teams in the
country, the youthful Ducks sur
prised many by finishing in a
16th-place tie with Colorado
State with 437 points. No. 1 Stan
ford was the winner of the 32
team race with 77 points.
The successful weekend has
Oregon in perfect position for its
first national top-25 ranking and
right on track to capture one of 13
at-large berths for the NCAA
Championships, which take
place Nov. 22 on the same course.
“We can be a lot better than we
showed today, and we’ll have to
be at regionals,” head coach Tom
Heinonen said. “Then we’ll have
to see how lucky we are in the at
large process. It certainly helped to
tie a team like Colorado State and
then beat Notre Dame and Mis
souri, who beat us two weeks ago.”
Leading the
Ducks for the
second time
this fall was
freshman Amy
Nickerson who
finished 32nd
overall in the 5,000-meter run
with her time of 18 minutes, 1
second. It was the Coquille na
tive’s first race since Sept. 25, as
she has been nursing a mild
Achilles aggravation.
“Mostly, I was happy to get
through it,” Nickerson said. “This
was my first big college race, and
it was a challenge.”
Finishing three places behind
Nickerson was junior Rhiannon
Glenn, who was coming off a race
at Notre Dame that her coach la
beled “listless.” Glenn led the
Ducks for most of the race before
giving way to Nickerson in the fi
nal 800 meters. Her time of 18:02
in her first elite race has Glenn
feeling better about her overall
running.
“I wanted to run out as far front
early as I could because I didn’t
get out fast enough last race,”
Glenn said.
Other finishers for the Ducks
were: freshman Tara Struyk, who
finished 86th overall (18:29) de
spite falling down twice during
the run; freshman Eri Macdonald
(148th, 19:03); senior Lisa Jansen
(153rd, 19:07); and junior Kylee
Wells (193rd, 19:41).
One downside continues to be
the health of junior Katie Crabb.
Oregon’s top returnee again at
tempted to race with a nagging
Achilles injury and was forced to
drop out during the final kilometer.
“We gambled the farm here,
and with Katie it didn’t work,”
Heinonen said. “But we beat a
couple teams that might help us
later on and missed a few others
by not much.”
Oregon next takes part in the
Pacific-10 Conference Champi
onships on Oct. 30 in Long Beach,
Calif.
Volleyball
Continued from Page 11
Erika Selsor, who supplied 40 of the Bruins’ 41 as
sists.
Halie Mazza had six kills and two errors. Banducci
matched her seven kills with seven errors. Gilmore
had six kills and five errors before leaving game 3.
Although it didn’t show on the scoreboard, Ore
gon’s defense held its own against the Bruins’ tough
offense. The Ducks had a 28-23 edge in digs but lost
the battle of the blocks 10-7.
“Some good things happened [against UCLA],”
11 There were some times when we had
some spark.
Cathy Nelson
head coach J J
Nelson said. “I liked how we started off, and I
thought we had really good defensive discipline and
did some good things. We’ve just been plagued by
errors lately and that was the case tonight. There’s
no doubt that UCLA forces you into some of those.
“They can be a little bit intimidating, and I felt
that we were an intimidated team tonight.”
Men run ‘Fein’ race,
place seventh overall
■ Led by senior Steve Eein,
the men hold their own in
the Pre-NCAAs
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
There was no evidence of rust
for the Oregon men’s cross coun
try team.
After three weeks of waiting,
the No. 9 Ducks went toe-to-toe
with the nation’s best at the Pre
NCAAs in Bloomington, Ind.,
and came away pleased with
their 307 point total and seventh
place finish.
"We did pretty well as a team,”
senior Andrew Bliss said.
Oregon was just “Fein” up front
as usual, with senior leader Steve
Fein heading the' Ducks with his
8-kilometer individual title in a
time of 24 minutes, 6 seconds.
Fein narrowly beat out
William & Mary’s Matt Lane and
Stanford’s Jonathon Riley.
Fein’s race-winning time ranks
fifth all-time on Indiana’s course.
His time was only three seconds
slower than the course record set
in 1992 by Bob Kennedy.
The victory was Fein’s second
of the season after taking the title
at the Roy Griak Invitational on
Sept. 25.
In a field that included 15
teams in the top 25 and six of the
top 10 in the country, the Ducks
proved they belong in the upper
echelon with their top-10 finish.
Finishing first overall in the
35-team race was No. 2 Stanford
with a total of 126. No. 5 Col
orado and No. 6 Arizona finished
second and third, respectively.
Besides Fein, four other Ducks
gained points for their runs.
Bliss continued his remarkable
climb up the cross country ranks *
with his 31st-place finishing
time of 24:52. Bliss was pleased
with his performance but knows »
he could have done better.
“I felt kind of tired out there,
and I think it’s because we’ve
been training so hard as a team,”
Bliss said. “I felt that I could have
placed higher, but for some rea
son I just didn’t have that extra
something needed. ”
Following Bliss for the Ducks
was freshman Jason Hartmann,
who controlled the nerves of rac
ing in his first big-time collegiate
race and kept himself composed
enough to finish a respectable
55th place in 25:11.
“Jason handled himself well
out there,” Bliss said. “He’s a
great athlete, and he’s still adjust
ing and learning.”
The final two point-getters for
Oregon were junior Michael
Kasahun (91st, 25:36) and junior
Sam Hill (136th, 25:58). Other
finishers for the Ducks were
freshman Kris Martin (164th,
26:13) and junior Lincoln
Nehring (210th, 26:56).
Oregon helped itself a great
deal in its quest to attain one of
the 13 at-large bids for the NCAA
Championships on Nov. 22,
which will also be held at Indi
ana.
“This meet us got us some at
large points for nationals, and
that was our goal coming in,”
Bliss said.
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