Triple Crown Would be Ideal Ending to Year
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
In 2001, golfer Tiger Woods won the first major tournament of the year, The Masters, to hold all four major titles concurrently. Because the victories spanned two years, Woods wasn’t technically credited with a Grand Slam, but that was as close as anyone has come in the modern era.
Likewise, only a technicality would keep the Oregon men’s cross country team from being able to claim a Triple Crown of sorts, were the Ducks to win the NCAA team title Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind. The designation wouldn’t officially apply, but the UO men could win their third team title of the calendar year by following up their 2014 victories in indoor and outdoor track and field.
The Ducks enter Saturday’s race ranked No. 3 in the nation behind Colorado, a heavy favorite to win the team title, and Syracuse. However, “we like to think a little different than that,” UO coach Robert Johnson said. “We do cross country, we do track at a high level here in our program. Hopefully we’ll continue to do that.”
Oregon cruises into the national meet after sweeping the men’s and women’s titles at the NCAA West Regional, albeit with Colorado not in the field. The Ducks were second to the Buffs both in the Pac-12 championships and at the Pre-Nationals meet run Oct. 18 on this same course in Terre Haute, Ind., although at a shorter distance of 8,000 meters rather than 10k.
The UO women also were second at Pre-Nationals, to Georgetown, and will also contend with the likes of Michigan State and Arkansas for the team title Saturday, Johnson said.
In addition, UO sophomore Edward Cheserek will look to rebound from his first loss in eight cross country races, spanning back to last season, by going for a repeat win at the NCAA meet. Cheresek and Eric Jenkins figure to be in the top 10 individually, and Johnson will look for his “Oregon connection” of Portland native Daniel Winn, Bend native Travis Neumann, Eugene native Matthew Melancon, Rogue River native Cole Watson and others to support Cheserek and Jenkins adequately enough to contend for a team title.
Johnson said Winn and Neuman “looked very controlled” at regionals and have the chance to run 10 to 20 seconds faster this weekend. “If we do that, who knows what’s going to happen,” Johnson said. “I think we’ll be happy if that’s the outcome they produce.”
On the women’s side, the Ducks will employ their season-long pack mentality to carry each other over the course of the race. The UO women have employed the strategy to great effect in recent weeks, getting their first five runners across the finish line within 10 seconds of each other at Pre-Nationals, and within an 11-second window for the conference meet.
The challenge Saturday will be finding each other in a massive field that will produce heavy congestion over the first few hundred meters. “Every coach is going to tell their people the same thing: We need to get out (fast),” Johnson said. “If you get trapped in that funnel behind you, you’ll be fighting that whole race to weed yourself through.”
The Ducks are girding themselves mentally for the weather conditions they’ll face in Indiana, too.
“We know what they’re going to be,” Johnson said. “The kids are prepared for that. You won’t hear us talk about how cold it us, how sloppy it is, whatever it’s going to be. Those are things we cannot control, (so we’re) not going to try to control them, not going to worry about them.”
Besides, should the Ducks run themselves all the way to the top of the podium, nothing will be able to rain on their parade.