Oregon Cross Country - Pre's Trail Cross Country Preview Race Tonight!!!

Will the Boise State distance squad coached by Brad Wick be there to throw down further Bronco domination on the hapless Ducks? If not, I guess that whoop'in will have to wait till the regional meet!

After all the US media hype today, a friend of mine and were talking and both agreed it was a boring assed football game, both teams played like they needed 3 weeks more camp.

Actually, if you want CC & Track to get more media coverage, somebody throwing a sucker punch after the race would be kind of cool idea.

Naw, the McChesney's were smart enough to do it where they couldn't be seen. ;-)

I went to the Pre Trail meet this evening and saw the women run Betsy Bies, Bronwyn Crossman, Rebecca Friday, Claire Michel, Sarah Penny, Taylor Wallace, Lauren Zaludek, and Chloe Steinbeck. Michel, Zaludek, and Crossman finished basically together 1-2-3 with Bies 20-30 yards back in 4th. Zaludek especially looked like she had a lot left. Friday finished something like 8th, but had a very strong finish. Steinbeck dropped out at about 2000 meters, just a few steps from me. She told the coaches she was okay and afterwards seemed fine, no limp.

For the men they ran Walker Ausustyniak, Eriic Dettman, Matt Dettman, Issac Stoutenburgh, Danny Mercado, Jonathan Thomas, and Bryce Burgess, Burgess, Thomas, and Mercado finished together 1-2-3. One of the Dettman twins was 4th and I think Stoutenburgh 5th or 6th.

Then they had a race, about 400 meters for kids - 13 and younger. Several of the men's team who did not run including McNamara, Acosta, Pusketra, Wheating (on crutches), Centrowitz formed a tunnel (two lines with their arms stretched out) for the kids to run through at the start line and the raced over the finish line to form another tunnel and cheer on the kids. What a thrill for the kids to be cheered on by their heroes. Then both men and women's teams lined up and signed autographs, mostly for kids. It was great to watch these Ducks interact with the kids and see the expression of joy on parents faces as their children interacted with the athletes. What a great idea to promote running and a good face on Duck athletics.

Most of the other Duck cross country runners were there. I heard that Keara Sammons was there, but did not see her. I don't think Zoe Buckman was there, probably still home. No word on Lindsey Sherf, but Rebecca Noble was there along with Blood, Kosiniski, Bridgmon, one or two others and the freshman including Anne Kesselring and Jordan Hassay who looks taller and her hair a bit shorter.

For me, the evening was very theraputic after last night's melt down in Boise. While ESPN continues to rant over Blount's actions, it is to bad that ESPN was not on the Pre Trail this evening to see the good side of Duck athletics. As I have seen before, our track and field and cross country athletes are not just good at what they do, they come across as being very personable, caring, intelligent young people. They do their university proud. The looks of joy on the kids and parents made it a very worthwhile evening. Maybe this is what the school should be promoting

Thanks for the 1st hand report.

Here are the results form GoDucks

Pre's Trail Pre-View

Alton Baker Park, Eugene, Ore.

Men’s 6,800 Meter Run

Oregon 15, Portland State 48

1, Jon Thomas, Oregon, 22:21.5. 2, Bryce Burgess, Oregon, 22:21.9. 3, Danny Mercado, Oregon, 22:22.3. 4, Eric Dettman, Oregon, 22:56.4. 5, Walker Augustyniak, Oregon, 22:57.3. 6, John Lawrence, Portland State, 23:10.1. 7, Isaac Stoutenburgh, Oregon, 23:20.3. 8, Matt Dettman, Oregon, 23:54.6. 9, Andrew Salg, Portland State, 23:57.7. 10, Tony Crisofulli, Portland State, 24:00.2. 11, Mark Bozarth, Portland State, 24:57.2. 12, Freddy Hernandez, Unattached, 26:06.0. 13, Peter Tran, Portland State, 28:49.6. 14, Brian Pinkstaff, Portland State, 28:56.1.

Women’s 4,800 Meter Run

Oregon 19, Oregon State 37

Oregon 15, Portland State 45

Oregon State 17, Portland State 43

1, Lauren Zaludek, Oregon, 17:00.1. 2, Bronwyn Crossman, Oregon, 17:02.4. 3, Claire Michel, Oregon, 17:02.8. 4, Betsy Bies, Oregon, 17:11.6. 5, Jennifer Macias, Oregon State, 17:19.7. 6, Hannah Soza-Hodgkinson, Oregon State, 17:24.8. 7, Sandra Martinez, Unattached, 17:39.4. 8, Laura Carlyle, Oregon State, 17:44.3. 9, Abby Chesimet, Oregon State, 17:46.6. 10, Sarah Penney, Oregon, 17:51.6. 11, Becca Friday, Oregon, 17:55.8. 12, Erin Jones, Unattached, 18:06.0. 13, Amber Rozcicha, Portland State, 18:19.8. 14, Amelia Holcombe, Portland State, 18:21.0. 15, Jenny Elder, Unattached, 18:30.7. 16, Kambria Schumacher, Oregon State, 18:34.9. 17, Tosh Buruse, Oregon State, 18:46.3. 18, Julie Pederson, Portland State, 18:52.8. 19, Jenny O'Connor, Oregon State, 18:57.5. 20, Sabrina Lopez, Unattached, 19:00.2. 21, Regina Lopez, Unattached, 19:00.7. 22, Stephanie Deever, Portland State, 19:03.2. 23, Brandy Castillo, Portland State, 19:15.4. 24, Katie Blue, Portland State, 19:28.7. 25, Cassandra Schumacher, Oregon State, 19:35.1. 26, Brittany Long, Portland State, 19:56.6. 27, Brittany Castillo, Portland State, 20:17.9.

www.goducks.com

yeah...me to...thanks for the report!...very much!