No. 1 Stanford Claims Eighth Consecutive Women’s West Region Cross Country Title
UC Santa Barbara joins Stanford as automatic bid to NCAA Championships, while Arianna Lambie of The Cardinal wins individual title for second straight year
PORTLAND, Ore. --- No. 1 Stanford claimed the 2006 NCAA West Region Women’s Cross Country title Saturday morning at Blue Lake Park with a team score of 42 points, 30 points ahead of the second place team. The Cardinal claimed their eighth consecutive regional crown, while UC Santa Barbara finished second with a score of 72. Stanford junior Arianna Lambie won the individual title for the second consecutive year, covering the six kilometer course in 20:58.85.
The host University of Portland was the top from the West Coast Conference, finishing seventh with 255 points. The Pilots were led by freshman Dana Morgan’s 27th place finish in 22:11.59. Sophomore Sifrash Ademe (31st, 22:19.96) was the next Portland runner to cross the line, followed by senior Kristen Rohde (43rd, 22:31.51), junior Bobeya Krishnek (50th, 22:43.93), freshman Natalie Hemphill (110th, 23:42.65), sophomore Adrienne Nova (118th, 23:48.43) and sophomore Janel Sislow (25:07.82). The Pilots, though only having one senior on the squad, finished with the third best result in school history. The 2005 team tied the school record, placing sixth at regionals.
A strong senior effort led UC Santa Barbara to a second place finish as the Gauchos placed four runners in the top 15, led by senior Lauren Christman’s fifth-place finish in 21:17.50. Classmates Lindsay Christman, Stephanie Rothstein and Megan Lewis all finished less than a minute behind in tenth, fourteenth and fifteenth places, respectively, as twenty runners were within a minute of Lambie’s winning time.
Arizona State finished third with 83 points, led by sophomore Jenna Kingma’s ninth place finish in 21:25.19. Washington was fourth with 170 points, UCLA fifth with 170 points and Oregon sixth with 177 points.
Lambie led virtually wire to wire on a muddy course at Blue Lake Park coasting to a fourteen second victory. Cardinal senior Kathleen Trotter finished second in 21:12.19, just seconds ahead of twin sister Amanda Trotter who crossed the line fourth in 21:16.88 as all five Stanford runners finished in the top 22.
Both Stanford and UCSB earn automatic bids to the 2006 NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Ind. on Nov. 20, while the rest of the nation awaits the announcement of the 13 at-large bids from the NCAA on Sunday, Nov. 12. The top four individual runners from each region not on an advancing team will also earn a spot in the championship meet.
NOTES:
*35 teams participated from six different conferences entered the NCAA West Region Championship
*Four nationally ranked teams in the USTFCCCA were represented in the meet: No. 1 Stanford, No. 7 UC Santa Barbara No. 8 Arizona State and No. 29 Washington
*6,000K course
