Women’s cross country finishes low in desert
■The Ducks finish in eighth
place out of nine teams at
the Pac-10 Championships
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
When nine teams compete at a
cross country meet, a eighth-place
finish does not sound especially
good.
But with the top five teams in
the Pacific-10 Conference ranked
in the top-25 in the country, the
runners on the Oregon women’s
cross country team say they aren’t
disappointed with their eighth
place showing at Saturday’s Pac-10
Championships.
The Ducks finished with 210
points, a score that bettered only
California’s 259.
According to
plan, top-ranked
Stanford (27
points) ran to the
championship
behind Lauren
Fleshman and Sara Bei, who fin
ished first and second individual
ly. Eleventh-ranked Arizona fin
ished second with 64 points and
was followed by No. 7 Arizona
State, No. 22 UCLA, No. 13 Wash
ington, Washington State and
use.
Going into the race in Scotts
dale, Ariz., Oregon was hoping to
achieve a sixth-place finish above
Washington State, USC and Cal.
After practicing in the cold rain of
Eugene, the harriers may have
been affected by the 90-degree
temperatures of the desert.
“We raced pretty much to our
potential for the day,” said sopho
more Magdalena Sandoval, who
finished second for the Ducks.
Junior Carrie Zografos led Ore
gon and finished 35th overall
with a time of 22:58.8 over the
6,000 meter course. Sandoval was
two places behind Zografos with
a time of 23:06.9 and was fol
lowed by Erinn Gulbrandsen
(44th, 23:32.6), Annette Mosey
(46th, 23:34.2), Laura Harmon
(48th, 23:39.7), Sara Schaaf (56th,
25:05.1) and Alicia Snyder-Carl
son (60th, 26:20.5).
“Our team is all middle-distance
runners, and they didn’t handle
the heat or competition very well,”
head coach Tom Heinonen said.
“They got out reasonably at the
start on a day that was getting hot
ter all the time, but weren’t able to
move up, except for Magdalena
and Erinn.”
Sophomore Laura Harmon, who
has often finished near Zografos
and Sandoval this season, still
seems to be feeling the effects of a
kidney infection she began to suf
fer the week before pre-nationals
on Oct. 13th.
“I think she needs a little more
time to get her strength back,” San
doval said.
Victory
continued from page 11
gravates on a 27-yard run at the
end of the third quarter.
So Smith had the first quarter off
and Morris had the fourth quarter
off.
In all, the two combine for 423
yards. Add Joey Harrington’s 23
yards rushing, and that’s a tally of
446 yards running the football that
smashes the Oregon school record
of 403 yards set against California
in 1960.
“I had an easy job today: Just
hand the ball off and watch them
run,” Harrington said with a grin he
must have been glad to be sporting
again.
Then there was also the game it
self. In typical Ducks fashion, Ore
gon took the 17-3 lead, then the 17
10 lead, then the 24-10 lead, then
the 24-17 lead and then barely
hung on for the 24-17 victory.
“We made it a little bit tougher
on ourselves than we needed it to
be,” Oregon head coach Mike Bel
lotti said.
But what would be the fun in not
making every second count? And
besides, Washington State was un
defeated and stood 10th in the
Bowl Championship Series rank
ings. So traveling up to the Hawai
ian-like locale of Pullman, Wash.,
and ending up victorious makes a
point.
“We made a statement today,”
Harrington said. “We had a point to
prove.”
But the statement almost never
got the chance to go through.
Oregon, with its seven-point
lead, punts the ball back to Wash
ington State with 1:34 to play in the
game.
The Cougars start at their 14
yard line and quarterback Jason
Cesser promptly completes five out
of seven passes to bring them all
the way down to the Oregon eight
yard line with 13 seconds left.
“I was like, ‘Here we go, we’re go
ing into overtime again,’” said
Gesser, remembering Oregon’s 27
24 overtime victory in Pullman last
season.
On first and goal, Gesser spikes
the ball to the ground, stopping the
clock.
On second and goal, Gesser lofts
the ball in the corner of the end
zone to 6-foot-6 Mike Bush, but 5
foot-8 Rashad Bauman leaps up
and knocks it away.
“Yeah, that was kind of like last
week with Teyo, but I wasn’t think
ing about it, I just batted it down,”
said Bauman, referring to the
touchdown by Stanford’s 6-foot-7
receiver Teyo Johnson over the out
stretched hands of Bauman in the
end zone on Oct. 20.
On third and goal, seven seconds
left in the game, Gesser steps back,
throws it down the middle, but right
at Oregon linebacker David Moret
ti, who watches as it zips into his
hands, and onto the ground.
“I have no excuse for not catch
ing that ball,” Moretti said. “I had
that right in the bread basket. I
could have made the game one play
less.”
Instead, the incomplete pass
brings up the final play of the game.
On fourth and goal, two seconds
on the clock, the undefeated
Cougars are down by seven and are
eight yards away from extending
the game into an extra session.
Gesser takes the snap and again
looks for Bush in the corner. The
ball reaches Bush’s hands, but Mal
lard’s sculpted 6-foot-2, 215-pound
frame reaches Bush at the same
time. The ball bounces off Bush’s
hands and flutters to the turf to
complete Oregon’s key win, a week
after the Stanford loss.
“I’m not sure how he ended up
on the receiver on that last play, but
I’m glad he did,” Bellotti said of
Mallard.
With the clock finally reading
0:00, the Ducks run over to the pack
of Oregon fans in the end zone.
Stephen Clayton, the energetic red
shirt freshman who has been im
pressive on special teams all sea
son, is waving to the crowd just as
he was at the beginning of this wild
afternoon when he was the first
Duck out of the tunnel.
Soon, the Ducks would enter the
boisterous atmosphere of their
locker room. And soon, the Ducks
would join together and sing a rous
ing rendition of the Oregon fight
song that is customary after every
win.
But you could hear in their loud,
proud and a tad off-key singing
voices at that time, just how much
this win meant to them.
With the Bruins and Cougars los
ing Saturday, no team in the Pacif
ic-10 Conference is undefeated.
Five teams have only one loss.
And Oregon remained one of
them.
This was not your average win
for these Ducks. It was a win that
reclaimed some of that important
swagger that had been taken from
them. It was a win that proved their
belief that one loss does not end a
season.
Apd it was one win that sent one
loud message back across the rest of
this unpredictable, yet so enjoy
able, Pac-10 Conference.
Bauman summed up the impor
tance of the win in two words:
“We’re baaaaaack.”
Jeff Smith is the assistant sports editor
for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be
reached at jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com.
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