The University of Portland men’s cross country team had a strong showing at the NCAA West Regionals and now await it’s fate. The Pilots ran to a fifth place finish with 140 points in the 21-team event at Woodward Park in Fresno, Calif. The West Regionals featured the best in the west with the top two teams automatically moving on to the NCAA National Meet in Terre Haute, Ind. on Mon., Nov. 22. The Pilots were led by freshman John Moore who covered the 10k course in 30:37, good for sixth place overall. Moore’s finish qualifies him as an individual for the NCAA National Meet, but the Pilots as a team, have to wait and see if they receive an at-large bid to compete in Indiana. The official announcement for at-large bids will come on Sunday, Nov. 14.
Stanford’s continued success was evident at the 2004 NCAA Western Regional Championships. The Cardinal swept both the women’s 6k and the men’s 10k on a sunny day at Woodward Park, despite being pressed in both races. The event was hosted by Fresno State for the 14th time overall, and for the first time since 2000.
The men’s race was also taken by a Cardinal runner, senior Ryan Hall, who finished in 30:07 over the 10k course. He was one of three Stanford runners in the top ten to lead the men to their team championship, which they won by 19 points over second place ASU, 49-68. Cal Poly finished third in the team standings with 86 points.
Other Pilot finishers include Micah Rolfe who finished 26th (31:13), Nick Schuetze in 29th (31:15), Chuck McKenzie in 36th place (31:30), Michael Kilburg in 44th (31:44), John Hoeck in 48th (31:49) and Brett Carter in 65th (32:17). This marks the third consecutive year a Pilot runner will compete at Nationals. Ryan Craig ran at the NCAA Championships last year, while Matt Harriman ran at the NCAA National Meet in 2002.
“The team did an awesome job and ran as well as I expected,” said head coach Rob Conner. “We were the youngest team at the West Regional with three freshmen and three sophomores. None of those guys had run a regional before but that didn’t show. Each guy did almost exactly what I thought he could do. It was really exciting to watch. John Moore ran a phenomenal race! He stayed at the back of the lead pack most of the way then sprinted away from Oregon’s two senior All Americans (Logsdon and Andrus) to capture the final individual spot into the national meet. Considering the fact that John is only a freshman, I’d say that may have been the best cross country run in school history. If not the best then right up there for sure! Nick Schuetze is our only senior and he closed out his career with possibly his best-ever race finishing 29th. He only missed all-Region by a few seconds. I was really happy for him. He has worked very hard and overcome a lot of setbacks. The next four years could be the best period in Portland history. We have a great young team and the talent already in the program to jump up to second as soon as next year. I can’t wait to get started. Only 365 more days until next year’s regional (at Stanford University Golf Course)!”
The Stanford women joined their male counterparts on the award platform as they also took home the team title. Stanford senior Alicia Craig took the title, running the 6k course in 20:03, with Arizona State junior Amy Hastings finishing second in 20:14. Stanford and ASU accounted for the first seven runners in the race. Stanford took the team title with 29 points, and ASU finished just behind them with 45 points. UC Santa Barbara came in third with 92 points.
Meanwhile, the Portland women finished just out of the top 10 coming in at 12th place of the 28-team field. The Pilots had 362 points and were without their top runner Amie Dahnke. Freshman Allison Ritchie led Portland with a 47th place finish. Ritchie covered the 6k course in a time of 21:53.
Portland’s Rachel Bertold finished 71st (22:26), Breanne Siebol came in 85th (22:41), Elise Sabin was 86th (22:43), while Kristen Rohde (23:17) and Annette Mosey (23:18) posted solid times for the Pilots.
