On Monday I posted the men’s dual-meet rankings. Here are the women’s rankings, following the same rules and formats:
#1. Southern Cal
The Trojans beat UCLA, and that’s all they needed to be ranked at the top.
#2. Minnesota
The Golden Gophers won the four-team Pepsi Collegiate Challenge by a single point over Oregon.
#3. Oregon
The Ducks took a narrow second at the Pepsi Challenge, defeating Penn State and Washington. (Next year they are expected to join in the revived men’s dual meet with UCLA.)
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Years ago, the dual meet was the cornerstone of the college schedule, with some schools regularly taking part in half a dozen of them per year. Even into the early 80s they were quite common. But when budgets were slashed and team sized plummeted, the dual meet dropped off the radar screen.
The regionals format for outdoor track has taken much of the pressure off in terms of getting an NCAA qualifying mark, and in recent years the meet has seen a bit of a resurgence; a few were even carried on regional cable TV. This past weekend saw the end of the dual-meet season with three rather important matchups (USC vs. UCLA, Washington vs. Washington State, and Arizona vs. Arizona State vs. Northern Arizona).
Recognizing this fact, I’m going to reinstate something Track & Field News once did: National Dual-Meet Rankings. Rules for ranking are as follows.
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Team USA Secret Weapons Revealed
Cooling vests used by Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi at the 2004 Olympics gave them the edge in the heat of the Athens marathons. What are USOC’s scientists doing now to prepare US athletes for Beijing? This Washington Post article reveals a Manhattan Project-like effort.
Read more at: [Washington Post]
Transitional Year For Oregon Track Team
An article in Eugene’s Register Guard provides a good overview of the current states of the University of Oregon’s track team Ducks’ coach Vin Lananna said, “we’re looking at this year as a very interesting gap. We have a spectacularly young team, and how we do depends on their learning curve … but honestly, we need to be focusing our attention on 2010 when the NCAAs are here [in Eugene, OR]. That’s when we need to be firing on all cylinders, and we’ve got two years to get it right.”
Read more at: [The Register-Guard]
Warehouse No. 812 May Spawn Olympians
An article in Northern California’s Modesto Bee profiles Tri-Valley Athletics who train in Warehouse No. 812 located in an old Navy warehouse at the Port of Stockton. Athletes include two-time Olympian Suzy Powell, pole vaulter Tye Harvey and his wife Three-time Olympian Amy Acuff.
Read more at: [Modesto Bee]
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Preview Of Oregon Preview
Eugene, OR’s Register-Guard, arguably THE track & field newspaper, has a preview of the University of Oregon’s Oregon Preview track & field meet which will serve as the unveiling of the newly renovated Hayward Field, which arguably may be THE track & field stadium.
Read more at: [Register-Guard]
The Man Who Would Be King
Joseph Ebuya of Kenya is profiled in Kenya’s Standard. He is vying to upset the great Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia to become the 2008 world cross-country champion. “I want only gold,” he said. “I know that if we keep up with him from the first minute we have a chance of beating him.”
Read more at: [Standard, Kenya]
Show Me the Money!
Of course we all know that cross-country athletes are in it solely for financial gain, not for the love of the sport. Here’s an article on the IAAF detailing the prize money for the 36th IAAF World Cross-Country Championships which will be held on March 30th, 2008 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Read more at: [IAAF]
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Josh McDougal has been named USA Track & Field’s Athlete of the Week after winning the men’s NCAA Division I Cross Country Championship Monday, November 19 at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind.
A senior at Liberty University, McDougal out-kicked Galen Rupp of Oregon in the men’s 10 km race in a thrilling homestretch battle, crossing the finish line in 29 minutes 22 seconds.
Rupp finished just one second behind in 29:23. McDougal is the first Liberty athlete to win an NCAA Cross Country title.
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China Withholding Beijing Pollution Data
Physicians for Australian Olympic athletes have requested data about Beijing’s pollution readings from August 2007, measured exactly one year before the 2008 Olympic Games, but to no avail. The readings were taken while a number of pollution-reduction measures were in place in Beijing, including banishing nearly half of the city’s 3 million automobiles from the streets. The Chinese have claimed that these measures reduced smog by 15-20%. Australian officials doubt these claims. Read more at: [The West Australian]
Galen Rupp is Team Player
Galen Rupp, even though he lost to Liberty’s Josh McDougal by 1 second in the NCAA Cross-Country Championships, is thrilled that his 2nd place finish was able to propel the Oregon Ducks men’s team to their first NCAA team championship since 1977, saying “It’s a great day for Oregon. This is the reason why I came back so quick after running (the World Championships) in Osaka. For the team. We have such an unbelievable group of guys and we have so much fun together.” Read more at: [The Register-Guard, OR]
Turkey Trotters and JFK Conspiracy Theorists Converge in Dallas on Thanksgiving
This year Thanksgiving Day happens to coincide with the 44th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas TX. Runners, tourists, presidential historians and conspiracy theorists will converge in downtown Dallas tomorrow to stuff downtown Dallas like a Butterball turkey. Over 30,000 runners plus another 20,000 volunteers and spectators in Dallas for the 40th Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot will be competing for parking space with an expected 2,000 people who plan to make their way to Dealey Plaza, the site of the assassination in 1963. Dealey Plaza is located just a few blocks away from the race course of the largest turkey trot in the country. Read more at: [Dallas Morning News][Wikipedia]
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Galen Rupp: “I’m starting to come around”
Galen Rupp, in only his second cross-country race of the season (he had started his training cycle again after competing in the World Championships), finished 1st to lead the Oregon Ducks to a 1st-place team finish at the NCAA West Regional cross-country championships. He is considered to be a favorite to win NCAA Championships this coming weekend. Read more at: [The Register-Guard, OR]
Craig Masback: “All signs point to [’08] being the best Olympic Trials ever”
Craig Masback has written a guest article on Oregon’s The Register-Guard website, explaining how the preparations for the 2008 Olympic Trials are coming along. Set to begin on June, 27th 2008 and lasting until July 6th, 2008, Masback writes that, “The pieces are falling into place to meet the Eugene ‘08 objective of making this Olympic Trials the most athlete-friendly and fan-friendly in history.” Read more at: [The Register-Guard, OR]
IAAF Ratifies New World Records
Haile Gebrselassie’s 2:04:26 marathon at the September 30th Berlin Marathon and Lornah Kiplagat’s 1:06:25 half-marathon (as well as her 1:02:57 20K en route to the half-marathon in Udine, Italy on October 14th at the 2nd IAAF World Road Running Championships) along with several other world records, have been ratified by the IAAF. Read more at: [IAAF]
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The University of Oregon proudly welcomes one of the top cross country meets on U.S. soil to Track Town, USA as the NCAA West Regional Championships make their first trip to the Springfield Country Club, Saturday, November 10.
On that day, Eugene-Springfield is one of nine host sites across the nation that automatically advance the top two team finishers and top four individuals from non-qualifying teams to the NCAA Championships, scheduled for Monday, November 19 at Indiana State University’s LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind.
Another 13 at-large teams and two at-large individuals will be added from across the nation to the 31-team, 255-runner M&W NCAA fields on the evening of Sun., Nov. 11. At-large team selection criteria is based on teams’ head-to-head records against other actual and potential NCAA qualifiers.
MEN’S RACE PREVIEW
In 2006, the Oregon men scored their first regional men’s team championship since 1989 thanks to five top-20 finishers – four of which return in ’07.
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The top-two nationally ranked Duck cross country teams savored some of their best showings ever Saturday in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, hosted by Oregon State University at at Trysting Tree Golf Course.
Under sunny, 62-degree nearly cloudless skies, the No. 1 Duck men won their 15th league title and were led by juniors Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott and Galen Rupp who nearly finished together and went 1-2 overall.
The No. 2 Oregon women claimed second place - their highest finish since 1997 - and were led by freshman Alexandra Kosinski and sophomore Nicole Blood who placed third and fourth overall.
Complete results are available in the link to the right, a photo gallery is available by clicking here.
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Top-ranked Oregon defends its title at the Pacific-10 Championships as other nationally ranked Division I teams also prepare for conference meets this weekend.
Oregon, the top-rated team in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll, will be challenged Saturday by eighth-ranked California, No. 14 Stanford, No. 19 UCLA and 25th-ranked Arizona State. The Pac-10 Championships will be held in Corvallis, Ore.
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