Complete Race Recap and Top Results from Monday's NCAA Meet

Race Results Weekly

TERRE HAUTE (19-Nov) -- The coaches' pre-meet rankings held up as the top-ranked Oregon men and Stanford women won the team titles at today's NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships at Terre Haute's Laverne Gibson Championships Cross Country Course. Liberty's Josh McDougal took an exciting men's race over a dry course with temperatures in the upper 50s, while Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego successfully defended her crown in a mostly solo run.

Despite the near perfect racing conditions, the men's race sent out slowly with nearly everyone still in contention through 3 km in 8:57, and the halfway point in 15:09.

"I wasn't surprised that the race went out so slow," said McDougal after the race. "Two years under nearly identical conditions, the race went out slow."

McDougal, Oregon's Galen Rupp, and Northern Arizona's Lopez Lomong led the pack of nearly 20 runners as they made their way up the long slope just before 6 km.

McDougal started surging at 7 km, with Rupp and Lomong immediately covering the move. The trio pulled away from the field over the long uphill over the next 500 meters.

Rupp then surged off the top of the hill around 8 km, with McDougal holding on while Lomong began to lose contact.

McDougal moved again around 8500 meters and opened about ten meters over Rupp going into the final small loop. Rupp recovered however, and pulled himself even with McDougal as the duo entered the final 400-meter finishing straight.

McDougal and Rupp ran stride for stride for the next 200 meters, then McDougal ever-so-slowly began to edge ahead for good.

McDougal crossed the line with his arms raised in 29:23, with Rupp a mere second behind in 29:24.

"With 200 to go, Rupp started to tighten up a little," said McDougal. "I waited until I could feel the finish line before making my final effort. I just wanted it more."

Lomong rallied on the final stretch to capture the bronze in 29:46, with Villanova's Bobby Curtis a stride behind in 29:47. Colorado's Brent Vaughn finished fifth in 29:48.

The Oregon men went right to the front at the start.

"We had asked them to get out and be aggressive from the beginning," said Oregon mentor Vin Lananna. "You have to get out to win. It was important for us to establish an identity for Oregon cross country, whether we won or lost."

The Oregon men, led by Rupp's runner-up finish, maintained their lead to the finish to win the first NCAA title for the Ducks in 30 years. Oregon, which scored 85 points for the win, had previously won team titles in 1971, 1973, 1974, and 1977.

The Iona men claimed second with 113 points, while surprising Oklahoma State placed third with 180 points.

KIPYEGO TOO TOUGH TO BEAT IN WOMEN'S RACE

Although the top-two women's individuals ended up in the same finish order as in 2006, the women's race developed differently this year.

Last year, Kipyego sprinted to the fore at the gun and never looked back. This year, Kipyego was content to run most of the first mile with a lead pack of three others that included Colorado's Jenny Barringer, the 2006 runner-up, Florida State's Susan Kuijken, and Iowa's Diana Nukuri.

Kipyego started to edge ahead on a long downhill just past the mile passing the 2 km in 6:26. Barringer, Kuijken, and Nukuri were only a second behind at the split before the field made their way up the course's second long incline.

>From that point on, Kipyego simply extended her lead over the chase pack -- passing 4 km in 13:01, 11 seconds ahead of Barringer, Kuijken, and Nukuri.

While Kipyego ran alone unchallenged up front, Barringer pulled away from Kuijken and Nukuri over the next kilo.

Kipyego, who started nursing school this fall at Texas Tech and had to balance her academic demands with her training to defend her title, won in a course-record 19:31.

"I wanted to start slow then build up over the course," said Kipyego after the race. "I raced Jenny a lot and I know she's really strong at the end."

Barringer cruised home in second, crossing the line in 19:48.

"I really wanted to go for the win; second isn't good enough for me. I wanted to risk it all for the win" said Barringer who goes by the nickname "Puddles." "I'm closing the gap. She's getting better, I'm getting better."

Kuijken pulled away from Nukuri over the final stretch to claim third, with the Florida State sophomore finishing in 19:58, her only cross country loss of the season, and the Iowa senior in 20:07. Michigan State's Nicole Bush finished fifth in 20:14.

The team race appeared over by the middle of the race, with two-time defending champion Stanford opening a huge lead in the team standings at both the 2 km and 4 km splits.

"We didn't want to do anything --for lack of a better phrase --"cute" or acrobatic," said coach Peter Tegen, who was celebrating his fifth team title-- two while at Wisconsin in 1984 and 1985, and two at Stanford in 2005 and 2006. "We knew all we needed to do was run. With a mile to go, we had the race sown up. Then lightning struck."

Teresa McWalters, who had appeared to be running comfortably with team leader Arianna Lambie midrace, began to struggle over the final kilometer and literally crawled across the finish line in 62nd place --losing dozens of places in the final stretch.

Still, the Cardinal was dominant enough to pull off the win with 145 points (Stanford won with an "NCAA record" high point total of 146 in 2005, then "surpassed" that total with 195 points in 2006. Pac-10 rivals Oregon --who didn't even qualify for these championships in 2006-- finished second with 177 points, while Florida State claimed third with 236 points.

The NCAA meet will return to Terre Haute for the sixth time in seven years in 2008.

Results:

MEN (10,000m) -
Teams: 1. Oregon 85; 2. Iona 113; 3. Oklahoma State 180; 4. Northern Arizona 190; 5. Wisconsin 239; 6. Alabama 280; 7. Colorado 287; 8. Minnesota 322; 9. Louisville 324; 10. UTEP 331; 11. Cal Poly 367; 12. Virginia 374; 13. Georgetown 398; 14. Portland 424; 15. William & Mary 432... [30 scored]

1. Josh McDougal, SR, Liberty 29:22.4
2. Galen Rupp, JR, Oregon 29:23.4
3. Lopez Lomong, JR, Northern Arizona 29:45.5
4. Robert Curtis, SR, Villanova 29:46.3
5. Brent Vaughn, SR, Colorado 29:47.4
6. Jacob Korir, SR, Eastern Kentucky [KEN] 29:48.7
7. Shadrack Songok, JR, Tex. A&M-CC [KEN] 29:50.1
8. David Kinsella, JR, Portland 8:57 29:52.2
9. Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwot, JR, Oregon [KEN] 29:55.9
10. David McNeill, FR, Northern Arizona 29:56.8

WOMEN (6 km) -

Teams: 1. Stanford 145; 2. Oregon 177; 3. Florida State 236; 4. Arizona State 251; 5. Michigan State 321; 6. Illinois 331; 7. Northern Arizona 357; 8. Washington 358; 9. West Virginia 375; 10. Iowa 387; 11. Florida 391; 12. Minnesota 393; 13. Arkansas 406; 14. Princeton 409; 15. Colorado St. 410... [31 scored]

  1. Sally Kipyego, JR, Texas Tech [KEN]           19:30.9
  2. Jenny Barringer, JR, Colorado                 19:47.8
  3. Susan Kuijken, SO, Florida State [NED]        19:57.3
  4. Diane Nukuri, SR, Iowa [BDI]                  20:07.0
  5. Nicole Bush, SR, Michigan State               20:13.4
  6. Emily Harrison, SR, Virginia                  20:15.0
  7. Barbara Parker, SR, Florida St [GBR]          20:17.0
  8. Nicole Blood, SO, Oregon                      20:17.6
  9. Arianna Lambie, SR, Stanford                  20:18.2
 10. Melissa Grelli, JR, Georgetown                20:19.6