Beavers head back to Indiana for Pre-Nationals

Saturday, October 15

Terra Haute, IN

TBA

Oregon State

Indiana State Pre-Nationals Invitational

Morgan Anderson (L) and Lexi Reed will help lead the Beavers at ISU.

Photo by: Scobel Wiggins/Oregon State Athletics

October 12, 2016 | Women's Cross Country

ISU Pre-Nationals info 2016 performance list 2016 performance list

By: Athletic Communications

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State cross country team returns to the Heartland on Saturday for the Indiana State Pre-National Invitational at Terra Haute.

It will be the second meet in a row in Indiana for the Beavers, who last competed on Sept. 30 at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend. They leave on Thursday for the roundabout, four-day trip, which includes plane connections in Minneapolis on the way out and Los Angeles on the way home.

The Pre-National Invitational is held on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course, the site of this year's NCAA Championships. Indiana State is the host team.

The 70-team women's field is divided into Blue and White pools. The Beavers will run in the 29-team White pool at 10:15 a.m. PDT with Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Clemson, Drake, Eastern Washington, Fresno State, Furman, Gonzaga, Indiana State, IUPUI, Liberty, Miami (Ohio), Morehead State, Murray State, Nebraska, Nevada, Northern Illinois, Oakland, Ohio, Quinnipiac, TCU, UC Davis, Missouri-Kansas City, Utah Valley, UTEP, Wake Forest, Western Michigan and Wichita State.

OSU's projected counting runners are seniors Morgan Anderson, Samantha Lewis and Emily Weber; junior Kristiane Width; sophomore Juliana Mount, and freshmen Lexi Reed and Sara Christianson. Junior Kala Kopecek will run in the 11:30 a.m. PDT Open race.

Christianson will make her varsity debut after running 17:41 for 3K in the Open Division at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Sept. 30. She would have been OSU's No. 4 finisher had she competed in the varsity race.

"There are eight regionally-ranked teams in our race," OSU coach Kelly Sullivan said. "Any time you have the opportunity to run on the NCAA course, and in this kind of competition, it's another opportunity for us to race teams we rarely ever compete against.

"It's a tough course and that's something else I wanted at this time of year. It's not flat and fast, like we will run at Pac-12s and at regionals.
"There are 29 teams in our race, and they are all legit. We will try and beat as many of them as we possibly can."

Sullivan said competing in another meet with a huge field will further acclimate the team for the Pacific-12 Conference championships and NCAA West Region, which also have a large number of runners.

"We have to keep doing what we are doing, so when we go to the conference and regional meets we are not overwhelmed by it," Sullivan said. "The eight women we're taking are very excited about going.

"Their focus has been tremendous, because of the caliber of the meets. We're not going to some small local meet. When you do that over and over you have a tendency to lose a little focus because it doesn't seem as important.

"All eyes are on this meet. It will be run just like the NCAA Championships. The more opportunity we have to race in races like this" strengthens the program. "The idea is to set the bar where it's expected there will be competition on the team to run in big meets like this."

Redshirt sophomores Sam McKinnon and Nicole Goecke will remain in Corvallis to train for the Pac-12 and regional meets.

"Not competing this weekend will give them a couple extra weeks of training," Sullivan said. "They both missed the entire year last year. We will have Sam and Nicole in our Pac-12 lineup."

The 41-team Blue pool begins at 9 a.m. PDT features Air Force, Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Brown, Butler, Cal Poly, California, Coastal Carolina, Colorado, Colorado State, Dartmouth, Eastern Kentucky, Elon, Florida, Furman, Indiana, Iowa, James Madison, Kansas, Louisville, Marquette, UMass-Lowell, Michigan, Mississippi State, Missouri, Montana State, Morehead State, Murray State, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Portland, Purdue, Rice, Stanford, Toledo, Tulane, Utah State and Virginia.

Saturday's race is the final invitational of the season. The Beavers will return to action on Oct. 28 at the Pacific-12 Conference Championships at Tucson, hosted by Arizona at the Randolph North Golf Course.

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN: Lexi Reed (Denver) was OSU's No. 3 runner in two meets and the No. 4 runner in her other varsity race. Sara Christianson (Boise) will race for the first time with the varsity on Saturday after running, in uniform, in the Open race at Notre Dame. Emily Bacon (Newport Harbor, Calif.) has also competed in three races, two as an unattached competitor and once as a uniformed runner in the Open race at Notre Dame.

OSU's other freshmen are Brooke Chuhlantseff (Salem); Emily Mackay (Endicott, N.Y.), and Mikayla Sodersten (Fresno). They will redshirt this fall.

REDSHIRTING RETURNEES: Senior Holly Cavalluzzo underwent off-season ankle surgery and will redshirt. A three-year letterwinner, she was OSU's No. 1 runner in every meet in 2015 and placed 52^nd at Pac-12s and 67^th at the NCAA West Regional. Cavalluzzo ranks No. 1 on the career 6,000-meter list (20:30) and is No. 2 over 5,000 (16:55).

Charlotte Corless, a junior from Beaverton who ran at Boise State the past two seasons before transferring to OSU for winter term of 2015-16, will also redshirt. She was 20^th at the Mountain West meet, 36^th at the NCAA West Regional and 207^th at NCAAs in 2015.

LOSSES FROM 2015: OSU lost Maureen Tremblay, Kira Kelly, Macaulay Wilson, Adrienne Demaree and Dakota Steen from the 2015 team. Kelly was OSU's No. 3 finisher at Pac-12s and No. 4 at regionals. Demaree was No. 5 at both meets, Tremblay No. 7. Wilson ran at Pac-12s but was not in the regional lineup. Steen ran in the season-opener only.

WEEKLY RANKINGS: The Beavers were not ranked in the Oct. 3 USTFCCCA West Region rankings. They are determined subjectively by a single member coach in each respective region.

Eight Pac-12 teams were ranked in the West Region: Washington (1), Stanford (3), Oregon (5), UCLA (7), California (9), Arizona (10), Arizona State (11) and Washington State (14). Colorado (1) and Utah (4) were ranked in the Mountain Region.

In the national poll, Colorado is No. 2; Washington is No. 4, Stanford is No. 7, Oregon is No. 9, and Utah is No. 23. UCLA and California also received votes. The next regional and national polls will be released the week of Oct. 17-23.

POSTSEASON PLANS: The Pac-12 Championships are Oct. 28 at Tucson, hosted by Arizona. Sacramento State hosts the NCAA West Regional in Sacramento on Nov. 11. Indiana State hosts the NCAA Championships, set for Nov. 19 at Terra Haute, Ind.

For more information on the Oregon State track and field program, follow the Beavers on Facebook at Facebook.com/OSUTrackCrossCountry, or on Twitter at twitter.com/@BeaverTrackXC

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