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PAC-10 CONFERENCE PAC-10 CONFERENCE 1350 Treat Blvd. Suite 500, Walnut Creek, CA 94597 // PAC-10.ORG // 925.932.4411 For Immediate Release \\ Tuesday, October 26, 2010 Contact \\ Natalia Ciccone ([email protected]); Mike Bruscas, UW Athletic Communications ([email protected]) 2010 PAC-10 MEN’S & WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS Saturday, Oct. 30, 2010 Jefferson Park Golf Course, Seattle, Wash. Hosted by the University of Washington RACE SCHEDULE COURSE DESCRIPTION 8:30 a.m. Course Open Jefferson Park Golf Course in Seattle (4101 Beacon Avenue South, Seattle) 9:45 a.m. Women called to the Start will be the site of the 2010 Pac-10 Cross Country Championships. Beacon 9:55 a.m. Women - Final Instructions Street splits the golf course in half. The Pac-10 Championships race will be 10:00 a.m. Start of Women’s 6000 Meter race on the east section of the golf course. The course consists of three relatively 10:45 a.m. Men called to the Start "at loops for the women and four loops for the men. Athletes will race mostly 10:55 a.m. Men - Final Instructions on fairways with a small part of the race course on the rough. There will be 11:00 a.m. Start of Men’s 8000 Meter race parts of the course where the athletes must cross over the golf cart path and 12:00 p.m. Awards Ceremony a wooded area. 41st-ANNUAL MEN’S RACE 25th-ANNUAL WOMEN’S RACE A stellar men’s !eld heads to the men’s Pac-10 Championships, looking to A talented !eld of runners takes centerstage for the 25th edition of the compete for the Conference team crown which has belonged to OREGON women’s Pac-10 Championships with !ve teams ranked in the latest USTFCCCA or STANFORD in recent years, with the Cardinal claiming the 2009 crown. It Coaches poll. will be dif!cult to break the stranglehold the Ducks and Cardinal have had on Ranked 20th in the nation this week, the Huskies look to defend their the title lately, as each have had strong team performances leading up to the back-to-back titles after coming off a strong performance at the Pre-National meet. But eight other teams will make a case for their right to hold the trophy. Invitational where they placed ninth overall. WASHINGTON had two top-25 Ranked No. 1 in the country in the USTFCCCA Coaches poll, STANFORD !nishers in the meet, with SR Mel Lawrence coming in 19th place for the top comes into the Pac-10 Championship after an impressive performance at the UW !nish. Pre-National Invitational meet in Terre Haute, Ind. on Oct. 16. The Cardinal It will not be easy for Washington to claim its third-straight title. The chal- won the Blue Race, with all !ve scoring runners placing in the top 20 of the lengers begin with OREGON who is ranked No. 2 in the nation this week and !eld, including the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 spots. JR Chris Derrick won the individual is looking for its !rst Pac-10 win since 1995. At the Ducks’ Bill Dellinger In- !eld, posting a time of 23:16. Derrick’s target will be especially large, given vitational on Oct. 16, UO beat the competition with, UO beat the competition he is the reigning Pac-10 Individual Champion, winning last year’s race with a with SO Jordan Hasay winning the overall individual meet. Third at last year’s Pac-10 meet-record time of 22:35. Pac-10 Championship, Hasay is the top-returning !nisher at this year’s meet. Looking to compete for the Conference crown is third-ranked Oregon. The Ninth-ranked STANFORD looks to get back to the top of the podium after Ducks did not participate in the Pre-NCAA meet but hosted their own meet being knocked off by UW two years ago, snapping a 12-year Cardinal streak. the same weekend, competing against a !eld which included No. 6 Wis- Stanford was third in the White Race of the Pre-National Championship meet, as consin, and won the Bill Dellinger Invitational, with SR Matthew Centrowitz SO Kathy Kroeger was the top Pac-10 !nisher, crossing the !nish line in third. leading the pack. Centrowitz was also a top-!ve !nisher at last year’s Pac-10 ARIZONA has come on strong this fall, making a 15-place jump in the Championship. USTFCCCA polls on Oct. 5, after winning the prestigious Ron Griak Invi- CALIFORNIA also enters the Pac-10 Championship ranked in the latest tational. Ranked sixth in the country, the Wildcats ran a strong race at the USTFCCCA poll, coming in at No. 22. Led by RS SR Michael Coe, the Golden Pre-National Championship meet, coming second in the Blue Race, placing Bears came in seventh place in the Blue Race of the Pre-National meet. Coe four scoring runners in the top 25. JR Hannah Moen led the squad with an was Cal’s top !nisher, coming in seventh individually. 11th-place showing. UCLA is receiving votes in this week’s USTFCCCA Coaches poll after com- Also making a good showing at the Pre-National Championship meet was ing in 11th in the Blue Race at the Pre-National meet. RS JR Kent Morikawa No. 22 CALIFORNIA, who came in eighth in the Blue Race. JR Deborah Mai- ran a solid race to lead the Bruins, placing 29th overall and help them !nish er was the top Pac-10 individual !nisher in that race, coming in third place. in the top third of the !eld. He will have to lead the squad at Pac-10s as SR Shannon Murakami led UCLA to a 19th-place !nish in the Blue Race. In UCLA’s top-three !nishers from last year all graduated. the White Race, FR Ruby Roberts led a pack of young Cougars to 34th place. Also competing in the Blue Race was WASHINGTON (26th place) and Four of the !ve scoring runners for WASHINGTON STATE were underclassmen. ARIZONA (34th place). Top !nishers for the Huskies and Wildcats at the Pre- USC’s SR Zsofia Erdelyi leads a young Trojan squad. She won the Cal State National meet were SO Joey Bywater and RS JR Abdi Hassan. Northridge Invitational on Oct. 16, leading USC to a third-place !nish, and ARIZONA STATE and WASHINGTON STATE were the only Pac-10 teams was also seventh at the Stanford Invitational. in the White Race and placed 19th and 23rd, respectively. ASU’s SR Ben OREGON STATE !nished fourth at the Bill Dellinger Invitational. OSU’s top Engelhardt !nished 18th overall in the competitive !eld, while JR Jono Lafler runner, JR Laura Carlyle, placed 14th at the competition. came in 52nd. The Pac-10 Conference is celebrating 25 years of women’s sports. Cross The Pac-10 had eight runners !nish in the top 30 of the Blue race, more country was one of the 10 sports !rst sponsored by the Conference in 1986- than any other conference. 87. The Pac-10 owns more NCAA women’s titles than any other conference. PAC-10 CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS // October 30, 2010 2 W 206-932-9173 PAC-10 CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS // October 30, 2010 3 25 YEARS WOMEN’S SPORTS - Cross Country It is a landmark year for the Pac-10 as it celebrates 25 years of women’s athlet- ics in 2010-2011. Since expanding to add 10 women’s sports in 1986-87, the Conference has been the leader of excellence in women’s athletics, winning more NCAA titles than any other conference. Pac-10 teams have won 123 women’s national titles, 106 coming in the last 25, easily outdistancing the SEC, which is second on the list with 74. In 1993, the Pac-10 added women’s soccer, for a total of 11 total women’s sports sponsored by the Pac-10. Since the NCAA began conducting women’s championships 29 years ago, Pac-10 members have claimed at least four national titles in a single season on 21 occasions. Pac-10 institutions have dominated a number of sports, winning 22 softball titles, 13 of the last 21 trophies in golf, and 11 in swimming and diving. Skieresz Cross country has been one of the sports the Pac-10 has been particularly successful, producing eight national championship teams, seven coming in the last 25 years. The Conference is second in cross country national titles to the Big East, which has claimed nine. Oregon dominated the sport of cross country early on, winning seven in the !rst decade of Pac-10 cross coun- try. The Ducks won their !rst NCAA crown in 1983 and won the Conference’s !rst in the sport under the Pac-10 umbrella in 1987. Pac-10 greats Penny Graves and Annette Hand, Pac-10 Athletes of the Year in the !rst three seasons of Pac-10 cross country, were instrumental in helping the Ducks win the 1987 crown. UCLA’s Karen Hecox welcomed the 1990‘s by dominating in 1993 and 1994, becoming the !rst Pac-10 runner to win back-to-back individual titles before passing the torch. In the mid- to late-1990’s, another runner ascended onto the Pac-10 scene. Arizona’s Amy Skieresz was a four- time Pac-10 Athlete of the Year, the only men’s or women’s runner to earn the award four times, and was an individual Conference champion every year of her career from 1995-1998. The speedy Wildcat was the !rst Pac- Hecox 10 women’s athlete to win an NCAA individual national championship in 1996.