Edward Cheserek pulled clear of the field with 2,000 meters remaining and sprinted home to win the 2014 NCAA Men’s Cross Country title Saturday at the LaVern Gipson Championship Course.
The sophomore from Newark, N.J., won his second consecutive NCAA title, joining the legendary Steve Prefontaine (1970-71) as the only Ducks to accomplish that lofty feat, covering the 10,000 meter course in 30:19.4.
“I was watching very close in case anyone made a move I had to cover, but no one did, so I just tried to time it with a mile to go and make my move,” said Cheserek. “I felt strong. Everyone in the field was so strong. I just wanted to take the lead, not go out crazy, but just control myself.”
The Men and Women of Oregon both finished sixth in the final team standings, making Oregon the only school to place both squads among the top half dozen in Terre Haute.
How It Happened - Men: Cheserek and Jenkins were among a massive lead pack that stayed together for the first 7,000 meters. The field finally began to string out after Cheserek jumped to lead with 2,000 meters to go. Jenkins was in the top 10 rounding the last curve, and then the senior sprinted up the final hill to clip a number of runners, including Northern Arizona’s Futsum Zienasellassie at the line, to give the Ducks an impressive 1-2 finish. Jenkins finished in 30:23.2, with Zienasellassie at 30:25.3.
Cheserek and Jenkins became the first teammates to finish 1-2 in the men’s championships since John Nuttall and Jonah Koech of Iowa State in 1989.
“That was the plan,” said Jenkins. “I think going into the year we talked about it, but actually being able to do it is a completely different thing. It’s great to come back here and finish a lot higher up.”
Oregon also had solid showings from seniors Tanguy Pepiot, who was 47th in 31:09.9, and Daniel Winn, who was 60th in 31:11.1.
Colorado won with 65 points, followed by Stanford with 98, Portland with 175, Northern Arizona with 188, Syracuse with 206 and Oregon with 221.
How It Happened - Women: As they have done all season, the women ran well as a pack, with just a :10 spread between their first and sixth runners, to finish sixth with 249 points.
Michigan State, which won the season-opening Bill Dellinger Invitational, won the 2014 title with 147 points, followed by Iowa State with 147, New Mexico with 188, Georgetown with 189 and Arkansas with 209 to round out the top five.
Freshman Alli Cash was the first Duck to cross the finish line, taking 59th in 20:56.4. Junior Waverly Neer was 62nd in 20:57.0, followed by senior Megan Patrignelli in 64th (20:58.3), junior Molly Grabill 77th (21:05.4), freshman Frida Berge 79th (21:06.2) and junior Annie Leblanc 82nd (21:06.5).
“We did a great job running together, but we were just a little far back,” said Patrignelli.
What It Means: Though the men had trouble finding a fifth runner in their quest for a top four finish, the Ducks have back-to-back top-10 finishes for the first time in five years. On the women’s side, the Ducks improved eight places over their 2013 NCAA showing and will return all but Patrignelli next season.
Odds and Ends: It was the last race as a Duck for Patrignelli, who has already used up her track eligibility, and she responded with her highest career finish (64th) at the NCAA Championships. The women led all Pac-12 squads in sixth place. Colorado was seventh, Stanford was 14th, Washington 23rd and UCLA 27th.
Quoteworthy: “For us to have a couple of guys go 1-2 is outstanding. I can’t say enough about their ability to do that. Probably not the team finish we were hoping for, but we’ll take it and we’ll move on,” said Oregon head coach Robert Johnson.
“To have the men and the women finish in the top 10 is always special for us, even though at Oregon we always say we want to be on that podium at the end of the race,” said Johnson. “But I think we left everything we had out there today to we can’t be too upset with that. Our women are really young and a lot of those women will be back next year and learn some things from this meet.”
“As time goes, we just forecast one thing at a time, so I’m not saying that I’ll come back here next year to defend it, but I would like to,” said Cheserek.
—From GoDucks.com