NCAA Cross Country Championships: Oregon women win team title, Cheserek beaten

By Pac-12 Network Newsroom
Nov 19, 2016
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Oregon won Saturday's NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships by the narrowest margin possible: one point.

Katie Rainsberger and Alli Cash drove the result for the Ducks, finishing 4th and 14th respectively. The race was run in difficult conditions including a wind chill of 27 degrees and wind gusts up to 18 miles per hour.

The team leaderboard shaped up like this:

The Ducks women last won the NCAA Championship in 2012 and finshed 3rd a year ago. Here's the moment they found out they'd won on Saturday, after a lenghty (and chilly) delay tabulating results:

The Ducks' margin of victory was breathtakingly small. Samantha Nadel took 21st in 20:14.0 and seniors Ashley Maton (61st, 20:37.0) and Maggie Schmaedick (64th, 20:38.1) also posted scores that stuck. Schmaedick's finish -- one-tenth of a second ahead of Michigan's fifth finisher -- was momentous.

All five Pac-12 women's teams in Terre Haute finished in the top 30. They were: Oregon (1st, 125 points), Colorado (3rd, 134 points), Stanford (5th, 255 points), Washington (12th, 352 points),  Utah (20th, 493 points), and UCLA (28th, 596 points). 

Individually, Missouri junior Karissa Schweizer ran back of the pack through most of the race then blew past Erin Flynn and Anna Rohrer through a crosswind-buffeted finish to caputre the women's championship. Winning time: 19:41.6. Pac-12 Champion Amy-Eloise Neale from Washington finished 8th.
 

PAC-12 MEN'S RESULTS

On the men's side, it turns out Edward Cheserek is human after all.

The Oregon senior, who was positioned to become the only four-time D1 NCAA men's individual champion in the event's history, finished third. Villanova's Patrick Tiernan and and Syracuse's Justyn Knight both beat him. Their times: Tiernan 29:22.0; 29:27.3; Cheserek 29.48.0.

"It's kind of disappointing, because this is my last year," Cheserek told GoDucks.com's Rob Moseley. "My hamstring was a little bit tight, but I was like, I'm going to try my best for my teammates."

Stanford finished second in the team event with 158 points, behind champion Northern Arizona University's 125 points. It was the Cardinal's third consecutive top-three finish and 10 overall. Happy dudes:

 

A photo posted by @stanfordxctf on

 

All six Pac-12 team finishes were: Stanford (2nd, 158 points), Colorado (6th, 223 points); Oregon (9th, 282 points); Washington State (14th, 370 points); UCLA (15th, 378 points); and California (31st, 776 points). 

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