Oregon is 'motivated' and 'hungry' heading into Pac-12 Cross Country Championships
Oregon’s new coaching staff will get its first crack at a championship meet Friday morning.
Jerry Schumacher and Shalane Flanagan will guide the Ducks through the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships at UC Riverside’s Agricultural Operations Course in Riverside, California, with the women's 6,000-meter race scheduled to start at 8:40 a.m., and the men’s 8K race at 9:40.
“I’m excited about it,” said Schumacher, who is in his first season as the head of the Ducks cross country and track and field programs. “It’s only our third meet and I feel like the men’s and women’s teams, we just keep getting better. When you keep seeing the improvement in practice, that’s a good sign, and I keep seeing us getting better at everything. They’re motivated, they’re hungry and that’s a good thing in a team.”
Schumacher’s men’s squad is looking to improve upon their fourth-place finish from last season — the fifth time the Ducks placed fourth in the last six years.
“For sure I can tell you the future of the program is not fourth place,” Schumacher said. “But I’ve kind of left those expectations off the guys. That’s not really part of the agenda for the team this year. … If we keep improving as athletes, we know the good stuff will come.”
Oregon is led by senior all-American Aaron Bienenfeld, who was fifth last season at the Pac-12 meet.
Bienenfeld won the season-opening Bill Dellinger Invitational in September and then was 24th and Oregon’s top finisher at the elite Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisc. two weeks ago.
Read more:Bienenfeld shines team wins at Dellinger Invitational, Oregon XC season opener
The Ducks placed 12th as team at that meet, behind Stanford and Colorado but ahead of Washington.
“I think that’s a fair representation (of the Pac-12),” Schumacher said. “We ran very well at Nuttycombe. They executed well and didn’t really leave a lot still out there.”
Also entered this week for the Ducks are Quincy Norman, Abdinasir Hussein, Josh Edwards, James Gormley, Cameron Stein, Elliott Cook, Giuliano Scasso and Alex Slenning.
The Oregon women were third last season, their best finish since winning the title in 2018.
Assistant coach Flanagan said there is reason for optimism Friday considering how close the Ducks were to other Pac-12 teams at the Nuttycombe Invitational.
Oregon finished 11th with 363 points, behind Stanford (285), Utah (303) and Colorado (306) in a race that included 36 teams and 263 individuals.
“We’re a new team working together and I’ve seen a lot of good stuff and it’ll be a different dynamic with a smaller field,” Flanagan said. “Everyone will feel a little more in it a lot longer because there just won’t be a massive amount of bodies to navigate.”
The Oregon women have entered Harper McClain, Izzy Thornton-Bott, Emilie Girard, Maddy Elmore, Malia Pivec, Melissa Berry, Nicole Louw, Klaudia Kazimierska and Kendall Martin.
Except for Martin, that’s the same group that raced at the Nuttycombe Invitational.
Thornton-Bott had the best race that day for the Ducks with a 24th-place finish.
“She trains really well and then on top of it she’s a great racer,” Flanagan said. “I think she’s really excited to see what she can do. There’s a lot of confidence and momentum with her.”
Flanagan is also eager to see how Harper McClain bounces back from, a 113th-place finish at Nuttycombe. It was a rough outing for the sophomore, who is talented enough to be top-end runner for the Ducks.
“It was just a big, overwhelming race when she had just started having some big expectations of herself,” Flanagan said. “We’ve corrected the course, and I’ve seen a lot of good stuff the last two weeks.”
The Stanford men are the overwhelming favorite to win their fourth title in six seasons. The Cardinal were the runner-up to Colorado last season but return individual champion Charles Hicks and his fellow Cardinal sophomores Cole Sprout, Ky Robinson and Devin Hart.
Those four led Stanford to a 54-point performance and a win at the Nuttycombe Invitational.
The women’s meet is more wide open. Reigning champion Colorado should contend again, though it lost individual champ Abby Nichols to graduation, with tough challenges expected from Stanford and Utah.
Oregon State won’t factor into the team race, but the Beavers could still make history on Friday.
Kaylee Mitchell was the Pac-12’s top finisher at the Nuttycombe Invitational when she came in fourth. Grace Fetherstonhaugh was 14th and the fourth runner from the conference to cross the finish line.
A victory by either runner would give Oregon State its first individual champion in program history.
Pac-12 Cross Country Championships
Friday at UC Riverside's Agricultural Operations Course, Riverside, Calif.
Women's 6K — 8:40 a.m. Men's 8K — 9:40 a.m.
TV — Pac-12 Networks
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This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Ducks optimistic ahead of Pac-12 Cross Country Championships
