What was Oregon thinking??

They wouldn't make 90% of teams.

I think the school promotes a PRE mentality. Go to the front, win, bring home glory and be famous.

You see nothing, you hear nothing, you know..nothing.
The start was downhill and everyone was out like maniacs.

yeah, the Ducks were in the front of the race(along with Tayvon Kitchen)…but if you look at their top three (Laadjel, Smith and Birnbaum), they all negative split the 5000s. Birnbaum caught 10 guys in the last K, Smith caught 15 and ran the fastest last K split.

that is not what cost them the podium. Looks like Evan Bishop was sick and didn’t race. That’s 70 points cost at least. Podium gone.

Newsflash. Cross country is a Team sport. Syracuse was more talented in getting all 5 men in to get 4th and Oregon didn’t. With 26 sec between 1st and 5th man. That’s the so called talent needed to get the points in a championship race. Lesson learned for Oregon.

Oregon's served notice that the best financed and illustrious program in the country will be a contender for the podium, even top three, next year in Jerry's fourth year there. 2022-23 was a wash. 2023-24 saw major recruits redshirting and getting injured. 2024-25 saw major recruits injured, transferring, and redshirting but also some improvement outdoors. 2025-26 is seeing improvement in depth and quality in xc, but still no extended four team podium finish. It is taking longer than it should with those recruits and it will be tougher with the all-star African teams that are being assembled now, but it may happen.

Told the team the same thing I told every Bowerman athlete before every tave go out and in the dang thang I don’t care about anything just win the dang thang or else ya walkin home. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s just how coachin is sometimes