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| goducks.com |
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| Associated Press/Michael Conroy |
The women's race was first and it was a battle. At the end, three ladies had a chance to win a national championship. Besty Saina of Iowa State ended up crossing the line first in 19:27.9. Dartmouth's Abbey D'Agostino and Oregon's Jordan Hasay crossed the line together in 19:28.6. D'Agostino was awarded with second-place.
After the race ended, I stopped watching the live stream and went to twitter to find out the results. At first, Oregon was named the national champions. A couple of minutes later, twitter was a buzz saying that there were disqualified runners and now Providence were now the national champions. Back on the twitter feed, it read that the officials were looking at the results and protests from Oregon and Florida State. Finally after a half hour everything was sorted out, Oregon was officially named the national champions again. What had happened was Oregon's Alexi Pappas, who finished eighth, wasn't counted in the team score along with some other runners because of a timing malfunction.
Besides Oregon, I was cheering for Michigan. After the results were finalized, the Michigan Wolverines were fifth in the team points. It was their best finish since 2006. Jillian Smith led the Wolverines. Smith placed 52nd in 20:24.0. Four spots behind her was Rebecca Addison in 56th (20:26.3); Amanda Eccleston 61st (20:28.6); Brook Handler 75th (20:36.7) and Lindsey Hilton in 94th place (20:46.3).
Women's Individual Results:
Besty Saina, Iowa State - 19:27.9
Abbey D'Agostino, Dartmouth - 19:28.6
Jordan Hasay, Oregon - 19:28.6
Allphine Tuliamuk-Bolton, Witchita State - 19:33.6
Risper Kimaiyo, UTEP - 19:41.0
Women's Team Results:
Oregon: 114
Providence: 183
Stanford: 198
Florida State: 202
Michigan: 247
The men's race was had less drama. Texas Tech's Kennedy Kithuka was the 10K individual winner in 28:31.3. Following him was a pair of Arizona Wildcats, Stephen Sambu was second in 28:38.6 and last year's individual champion was Lawi Lalang in third (28:51.8). Fourth place was Anthony Rotich from UTEP (29:13.5) and Oklahoma State's Girma Mecheso was fifth in 29:14.8.
The men's title was won by Oklahoma State. The beat last year's national champions Wisconsin by 63 points. It was Oklahoma State's third cross country national championship in four years. Wisconsin had three runners in the top 15: Mohammed Ahmed (8th); Maverick Darling (11th) and Reed Connor (12th). If Wisconsin's fourth and fifth runners placed higher then what they did (Michael Van Voorhis, 204th and Alex Brill, 211th), maybe they could have had a shot at another national championship. Even though Wisconsin did finish second to Oklahoma State, they still had a great season. The Badgers won the Big Ten and the Great Lakes Regional.
Men's Individual Results:
Kennedy Kithuka, Texas Tech - 28:31.3
Stephen Sambu, Arizona - 28:38.6
Lawi Lalang, Arizona - 28:51.8
Anthony Rotich, UTEP - 29:13.5
Girma Mecheso, Oklahoma State - 29:14.8
Men's Team Results:
Oklahoma State: 72
Wisconsin: 135
Colorado: 158
N. Arizona: 191
Florida State: 238
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