Pacific-10 Cross Country Championships set to go on Friday

MEN’S RACE (40th annual). . . A young ARIZONA squad, which lists only one senior on the roster, will be paced by sophomore Victor Zazueta... ARIZONA STATE sophomores Patrick Malloy and Ben Engelhardt lead a Sun Devil squad that is loaded with freshmen and sophomores... Seniors Yosef Ghebray and Mark Matusak will look to improve on No. 24 CALIFORNIA’s impressive finish last season. The Golden Bears posted their best ever Pac-10 Championships outing with 70 points and a third-place finish... The top-ranked OREGON Ducks will be led by a pair of seniors in defending Pac-10 champion Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott and Galen Rupp. Rupp, an eight-time All-American, was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team and competed in the 2008 Bejing Olympics... No. 2 STANFORD will compete with senior Garrett Heath and freshman Chris Derrick. The Cardinal are coming off an impressive first place showing in the White race at the NCAA Pre-National Invitational... Seniors Laef Barnes and Drew Shackleton will keep No. 13 UCLA in the hunt. The Bruins finished fifth in the NCAA Pre-Invitational White race... No. 24 WASHINGTON will look to junior Jake Schmitt and senior Jeremy Mineau to lead the Huskies. Each have led the Huskies in separate races this season... WASHINGTON STATE has been led by senior Drew Polley. He’s been the top-finishing Cougar in each of the two meets he’s competed.

WOMEN’S RACE (23rd annual). . . A competitive race featuring three teams ranked among the nation’s Top 10... Junior Irine Lagat and freshman Hannah Moen will lead the ARIZONA women. Lagat placed 38th at the NCAA Pre-National Invitational leading the Wildcats to a respectable 15th place in the Blue race... Senior Jenna Kingma and junior Ali Kielty have turned in strong performances this season for No. 15 ARIZONA STATE. The Sun Devils finished sixth at the NCAA Pre-National Invitational White race, with Kielty crossing the finish line first for Arizona State, 10th overall... CALIFORNIA junior Alison Greggor has been the top finisher for the Golden Bears in two of the three meets she’s competed in this season... No. 2 ranked OREGON hopes to use its home course advantage and strong performances from sophomore Alexandra Kosinski and junior Nicole Blood to grab their first Pac-10 title since 1995. Those two finished third and fourth respectively at last year’s Pac-10 Championships... OREGON STATE has been impressive this season and will be guided by senior Sylvia Veal. Veal has been the top Beaver finisher in two of three races... First-year coach Jason Dunn will attempt to guide No. 18 STANFORD to its 13th consecutive Pac-10 title. The Cardinal have won the last three consecutive NCAA Championships, and four of the last five. Sophomore Alexandra Gits and junior Kate Niehaus will contend for top honors... UCLA will be led by freshman Katja Goldring. She has been the Bruins top finisher in every meet this season... USC will be led by sophomores Zsofia Erdelyi and Sarah Cocco. The duo finished 1-2 at the Peppedine Invitational respectively and one of the two has won four of the five regular season meets in which they have competed. ... The top-ranked WASHINGTON Huskies are coming off an impressive showing at the NCAA Pre-Invitational where they captured the title in the Blue Race. Freshmen Kendra Schaaf and Christine Babcock, and sophomore Marie Lawrence finished third, fourth and fifth respectively for the Huskies... WASHINGTON STATE will be led by juniors Sara Trané and Lisa Egami. Trané was the top finishing Cougar at the NCAA Pre-Invitational, finishing
47th in the Blue Race.

THE COURSE . . . The men’s course will cover 8,000 meters at Springfield Country Club, Eugene, Ore. The women, meanwhile,
will run a course of 6,000 meters. The terrain for both the men’s course and women’s course will be run over grass, with short sections run on dirt service road.

2008 PAC-10 CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS . . . Following the championships, final results for the men’s and women’s races will be available on the Oregon web site (www.goducks.com) and the Pac-10 web site (www.pac-10.org).

CAN’T MAKE IT IN PERSON? . . . Comcast Sports Net Northwest will air the championships
at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31. The telecast will start with a delayed airing of the women’s race, then proceed into a live showing of the men’s race. In addition, video streaming of the Pac-10 Championships will be available on the Pac-10 website (www.pac-10.org).

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? . . . The NCAA West Regional Championships will be in Stanford, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 15 (hosted by Stanford University), while the NCAA Championships will be Monday, Nov. 24 in Terre Haute, Ind. (hosted by Indiana State).