Can Washington's Freshmen Lead Them To First PAC 10 Title In 19 Years? ...

#1 vs. #2 Clash In The PAC 10 Championships ...

Stanford To Relinquish XC Title For First Time Since 1995 ...

Teams: #1 Washington, #2 Oregon, #15 Arizona State, #18 Stanford, #31 Oregon St., Arizona, California, UCLA, USC, Washington St.

*
2007 Championships Results Here (Stanford wins 12th in a row going 1-2 with seniors Lambie and McWalters)

What a year for the PAC 10 in cross-country! For the past 12 years, Stanford's women have won the team title. New coach Jason Dunn's Cardinal are ranked #18 in the country, but will have virtually no chance at extending that streak once the gun goes off. The Huskies of Washington are rightfully ranked #1 in the country after placing 5 runners in the top 16 in their section of Pre-Nationals en route to scoring 36 points. Normally, we would say this team would have no chance of losing their conference meet. But this year is insane, as Oregon has a stacked, veteran team that we could easily envision taking down Washington, especially if the race becomes tense and tactical.

Scoring Meet Removing Last Year's Seniors: 1. Oregon (46) 2. Arizona State (49) 3. Washington (57) 4. Arizona (148) 5. Oregon State (157) 6. USC (190) 7. Washington State (192) 8. California (198) 9. Stanford (incomplete score) 10. UCLA (incomplete score)

PRE NCAA Results Combined Scoring: 1. Washington 48 points 12. Arizona St. 436 14. Stanford 462

Let's look at the major players up front. We'll start with Vin Lananna's Oregon lineup. Lindsey Scherf joined the Ducks this year; she is a Harvard transfer and national junior record holder at 10k. Melissa Grelli, transfer from Georgetown, was the 2007 Big East XC Champion and was 10th at NCAAs in 2007. Alexandra Kosinski was 13th at NCAA XC as a freshman and ran a 4:38 1,600m in high school. Nicole Blood was 8th in the 2007 NCAA XC field. Australian Zoe Buckman was 39th at the 2007 NCAA XC in her first year of cross country competition. There are many more outstanding runners but you get the idea. Ladies and gentlemen, this team quite possibly will not win conference this year, through no fault of their own. The Huskies are simply loaded! To read about the standout Husky runners that are currently unanimously ranked #1 in the country, click here.

Below we give our predictions for the meet. We have caught a little bit of Husky fever, we must admit, after they placed 4 in the top 10 in Terre Haute. We're going with the Huskies in a relatively tight one. Up front, the freshmen are our picks over the super-accomplished Oregon veterans like Blood, Scherf, Kosinski, and Grelli. Why? Because they're on fire and their coach claimed they were "holding back" at Pre-NCAAs. Add to that, the Oregon girls haven't raced anybody yet! Our predictions at NCAAs may change as the older runners may shine brighter later in the season when the going gets tougher, but we'll see. In addition to obviously being in awe of Washington's team, we're so in love with Oregon that we're predicting that no runner from another team will crack the top 10. [Note: It also made the meet easier to score in our team predictions.]

Men's and Women's PAC 10 XC Championships held October 31, 2008. Springfield Country Club, Eugene, Oregon.

1. Washington 26

2. Oregon 29

3. Arizona State 

4. Stanford

5. Oregon St.
...

LRC 2008 Pac 10 Women's XC Individual Predictions: Arizona State has a really good team and so does Stanford, but we're not sure either team will sneak a runner into the top 10 of their league meet. It's kind of fun to predict something this outlandish and then see if it really happens.

1. Kendra Schaff (WASH)

2. Christine Babcock (WASH)

3. Alexandra Kosinski (OR)

4. Lindsey Scherf (OR)

5. Nicole Blood (OR)

6. Marie Lawrence (WASH)

7. Melissa Grelli (OR)

8. Katie Follett (WASH)

9. Amanda Miller (WASH)

10. Zoe Buckman (OR)

11. Ali Kielty (ASU)

12. Jenna Kingma (ASU)

13. Zsofia Erdelyi (USC)

14. Kari Hardt (ASU)

1. Stanford 48

2. Oregon 64

3. ASU 68

3. Washington 68

5. Washington St. 124

Hypothetical results based on returners from 2007 conference meet + selected results from major 2008 meets

In listing a score for the returners, we remove last year's seniors and score the hypothetical meet in a normal fashion; i.e., runners who were outside a team's top 7 last year but move into the top 7 when seniors are removed have been counted as scorers or displacers. Returning runners who remain outside their team's top 7 do not figure into either scoring or displacing and count as extras.

Obviously, some runners listed as retuners will, in fact, not be running this season. New recruits or transfers will also clearly have an immediate impact, as will runners left off of last year's squads who may have improved dramatically this year. These lists are merely a reflection of what the teams' returning conference runners did at last year's meet and how they would have placed if last year's seniors were removed - nothing more, nothing less.

Below each team's returners, the most recent major 2008 results are given (e.g., Pre-Nationals).

1. Oregon (46)

2. Arizona State (49)

3. Washington (57)

4. Arizona (148)

5. Oregon State (157)

6. USC (190)

7. Washington State (192)

8. California (198)

9. Stanford (incomplete score)

10. UCLA (incomplete score)

1. Oregon (46)

Alexandra Kosinski (1)
Nicole Blood (2)
Bria Wetsch (12)
Zoe Buckman (13)
Zoe Nelson (18)
Brooke Giuffre (20)
Claire Michel (33)

Transfer additions: Lindsey Scherf, Melissa Grelli

2008 Mike Hodges Results

1 Oregon                       21    1    2    4    5    9   10   14           
      Total Time:  1:26:59.00                                                     
         Average:    17:23.80 

2. Arizona State (49)

Jenna Kingma (3)
Ali Kielty (5)
Kari Hardt (8)
Camille Olson (14)
Angela Spadafino (19)
Krystal Duke (23)
Whitney Blue (53)

2008 Pre-Nats

6.   202  Arizona State                               (  21:11  1:45:53)
==========================================================
  1     10     73 Ali Kielty             20:40
  2     16     72 Kari Hardt             20:49
  3     33     74 Jenna Kingma           21:09
  4     71     79 Angela Spadafino       21:37
  5     72     78 Lindsay Prescott       21:38
  6   ( 80)    75 Sunni Olding           21:43
  7   ( 82)    77 Haley Paul             21:45

3. Washington (57)

Anita Campbell (4)
Katie Follett (6)
Marie Lawrence (9)
Amanda Miller (11)
Brooke Anderson (27)
Lauren Saylor (30)
Andrea Brown (41)

2008 Pre-Nats

1.    36  Washington                                  (20:21.2  101:45.7)
==========================================================
  1      3   1593 Kendra Schaaf        20:14.7
  2      4   1585 Christine Babcock    20:15.2
  3      5   1589 Marie Lawrence       20:17.8
  4      8   1588 Katie Follett        20:20.3
  5     16   1586 Anita Campbell       20:37.7
  6   ( 27)  1592 Lauren Saylor        20:56.7
  7   ( 51)  1587 Kailey Campbell      21:17.8

4. Arizona (148)

Irine Lagat (15)
Marissa Urban (22)
Maggie Callahan (28)
Shelly Splittberger (32)
Christina Rodgers (51)
Kassidy Rede (58)
(only 6 returning finishers)

2008 Pre-Nats

15.   446  Arizona                                     (21:44.3  108:41.1)
==========================================================
  1     38     55 Irine Lagat          21:12.4
  2     68     56 Hannah Moen          21:28.3
  3     87     52 Maggie Callahan      21:41.7
  4    121     59 Shelly Splittberger  22:06.4
  5    132     57 Christina Rodgers    22:12.3
  6   (133)    54 Hanna Henson         22:12.6

  7   (157)    53 Mackenzie Edwards    22:22.9

                            
 3 Oregon State                 75   11   12   16   17   19   21   22           
      Total Time:  1:30:21.00                                                     
         Average:    18:04.20

6. USC (190)

Sarah Cocco (7)
Zsofia Erdelyi (34)
Bridget Helgerson (40)
Katherine Ellis (54)
Chanel Fischetti (55)
Zara Lukens (59)
(only 6 returning finishers)

16.   467  Washington St.                              (21:46.9  108:54.3)
==========================================================
  1     47   1612 Sara Trane           21:16.6
  2     48   1606 Lisa Egami           21:17.0
  3     98   1608 Michelly Foley       21:50.7
  4    134   1613 Chelsea Vandebrake   22:13.6
  5    140   1604 Amanda Andrews       22:16.4
  6   (198)  1607 Emily Farrar         22:48.6
  7   (218)  1609 Marisa Sandoval      23:02.8

8. California (198)

Chelsea Reilly (21)
Gabriele Rios-Sotelo (35)
Rowena Tam (36)
Taylor Bryson (50)
Araceli Huerta (56)
Beckie Palm (57)
Alison Greggor (61)

2008 Pre-Nats

15.   474  California                                  (  21:51  1:49:14)
==========================================================
  1     63    171 Rowena Tam             21:33
  2     73    168 Deborah Maier          21:39
  3     95    170 Gabi Rios-Sotelo       21:52
  4    109    167 Keena Kohl             22:00
  5    134    164 Crystal Esparza        22:10
  6   (248)   165 Alison Greggor         24:04

9. Stanford (incomplete score)

Kate Niehaus (10)
Katie Harrington (17)
Maddie O'Meara (31)
Lindsay Flacks (39)
(only 4 returning finishers)

2008 Pre-Nats

  7.   248  Stanford                                    (21:16.3  106:21.4)
==========================================================
  1     28   1287 Laurynne Chetelat    20:57.3
  2     37   1294 Katie Harrington     21:12.1
  3     55   1295 Stephanie Marcy      21:19.8
  4     57   1291 Alicia Follmar       21:22.2
  5     71   1293 Georgia Griffin      21:30.0
  6   (106)  1286 Emilie Amaro         21:55.5
  7   (183)  1297 Maddie O'Meara       22:38.3

 25.   600  UCLA                                        (  22:04  1:50:19)
==========================================================
  1     50   1467 Katja Goldring         21:22
  2     87   1465 Shelby Buckley         21:46
  3    148   1470 Shannon Murakami       22:19
  4    151   1468 Lauren Jirges          22:22
  5    164   1472 Kelcie Wiemann         22:30
  6   (182)  1469 Sadee Martinez         22:42
  7   (239)  1471 Taryn Pastoor          23:40

*Note, these are kind of outrageous if you think about the fact that there were 82 good D1 teams in the competition and UW scored 48 points in the merge.

1. Washington 48 points
12. Arizona St. 436
14. Stanford 462