Oregon Men Repeat, Washington Women Win First Title At NCAA Division I Cross Country Championship

Liberty's Samuel Chelanga and Oregon's Galen Rupp

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – When teams and spectators arrived at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course on Tuesday morning, they knew they were in for a cold and rainy day at the course. Despite the less than favorable conditions, two individual course records fell and new standards were set at the 2008 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.

The women took to the course first and braved the cold, windy and rainy conditions to put on an impressive race. The race was dominated by Washington, who placed all five of their athletes in the top 30 to compile a team score of 79 points. The NCAA title was the first for the No.1-ranked Huskies in school history and broke a string of three-straight NCAA team championships for Stanford.

Oregon finished as the runner-up for the second straight season, as the Ducks compiled a team score of 131 to finish ahead of Florida State in third place with 163 points. West Virginia placed fourth in the race with a team score of 198 and Princeton rounded out the top five with a team score of 220.

Two-time defending champion Sally Kipyego led nearly the entire race to win her third-consecutive NCAA championship. Her time of 19:28.1 broke the previous course record of 19:30.9, which she set at the 2007 NCAA Championship in Terre Haute. Florida State’s Susan Kuijken raced right next to Kipyego for the majority of the race but fell just a bit short in second place with a time of 19:34.9.

Virginia Tech’s Tasmin Fanning was the third-place finisher in a time of 19:37.1 and finished just behind the leaders. North Carolina’s Brianna Felnagle finished in fourth place with a time of 19:53.3 and Racheal Marchand of Iowa rounded out the top five with a time of 19:54.9.

Following the completion of the women’s race, the men took to the course in search of a national championship. The defending champion and No. 1-ranked Oregon Ducks finished with five runners in the top 50 to secure their second-straight NCAA title with a team score of 93. The championship was the fifth for Oregon in the school’s history and fifth for head coach Vin Lananna in his career (two at Oregon, three at Stanford).

Iona was the runner-up with team score of 147 and had two individuals in the top five to help earn the second-place finish. Stanford came in third place with a time score of 227 points, led by freshman Chris Derrick in sixth place, just two points ahead of Wisconsin in fourth place with 229 points. Auburn rounded out the top five in fifth place with a score of 264.

The race boiled down to a two-man contest between Galen Rupp of Oregon and Samuel Chelanga of Liberty. The pair stayed side-by-side throughout most of the race before Rupp sprinted ahead of Chelanga in the last 1000 meters to win and set a new course record of 29:03.2. Rupp, a 2008 Olympian for the United States in Beijing, topped the previous mark of 29:04.7 set by Jorge Torres of Colorado in 2002.

Chelanga was five seconds behind Rupp in a time of 29:08.0 to finish in second place and finished 17 seconds ahead of Andrew Ledwith of Iona in third place with a time of 29:25.4. David Kinsella of Portland was fourth in a time of 29:26.5 and Luke Puskedra of Oregon rounded out the top five with a time of 29:27.8 in fifth place.

The 2009 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships will once again be held at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course located at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind. It will mark the sixth-straight time that the championships will be hosted by Indiana State and the seventh time in the last eight years.

Courtesy: ISU Athletics