Beavers head to Seattle
November 12, 2015 | Women's Cross Country
Corvallis, Ore. – The Oregon State cross country team hopes Friday the 13th will be a good-luck omen when it competes in the NCAA West Regional in Seattle this Friday.
The 6,000-meter race starts at noon at the Jefferson Park Golf Course, located east of I-5 on Beacon Avenue South in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. The top two teams from the nine nationwide regionals, and 13 at-large selections, will advance to the NCAA championships, set for Nov. 21 in Louisville.
With 37 teams expected to compete, the Beavers, who placed 11th at the Pacific-12 Conference championships on Oct. 30 in their last race, are the longest of long shots to advance to nationals for the first time in school history.
Rather, the emphasis is to run the best race possible and to build for 2016. With only one senior (Adrienne Demaree) graduating, the return of Sam McKinnon and Emily Weber from redshirt seasons and an excellent recruiting class should give the 2016 Beavers unprecedented depth.
“We are looking forward to running even better than we did at Pac-12s,” coach Kelly Sullivan said. “The seven who will compete on Friday have been very focused, diligent and intense going into this meet.
“Our objective is to have our best race of the fall. Every indications shows that is a possibility.”
OSU's entrants are Demaree; juniors Holly Cavalluzzo, Samantha Lewis, Kira Kelly, Morgan Anderson and Maureen Tremblay, and freshman Juliana Mount. Freshman Rachel Johnson is the alternate.
All ran at Pac-12s. Cavalluzzo (52) and Mount (59), who broke into the starting lineup midway through the season, were OSU's top two finishers.
Cavalluzzo set the OSU record for 6,000 meters on the Jefferson Park course at the Washington Invitational back on Oct. 2 by placing 31st in 20:30, a PR by 41 seconds. She broke Kinsey Gomez's 2013 school record by one second, and shattered her PR by a whopping 41 seconds.
Anderson (68th, 21:45), Lewis (76th, 22:10), and Tremblay (77th, 22:13) also competed that day, so the Beavers should be very familiar with the generally flat, three-loop layout.
“The difference is, the field is going to be about twice as large, and that changes the dynamic significantly, even though it's the same course,” Sullivan said. “The course will race a lot tighter because there will be so many more bodies.
“It's nice to go to the same course, but it will run differently.”
Last time out: OSU finished 11th at the Pac-12 Championships at Colfax, Wash., on Oct. 31. Junior Holly Cavalluzzo was OSU's top placer, as she took 52nd in 21:33; freshman Juliana Mount was 59th in 21:43.
In the record books: Junior Holly Cavalluzzo ranks second all-time in races of 5,000 meters (16:55) and first on 6,000-meter courses (20:30).
Other 2015 team members with top-20 career times over 5,000 meters are sophomore Sam McKinnon (5, 17:06); junior Emily Weber (11, 17:26); junior Morgan Anderson (12, 17:27) and sophomore Kristiane Width (18, 17:43).
Over 6,000 meters, Weber and McKinnon rank No. 3 (20:52); Width ranks 10th (21:12); junior Kira Kelly ranks 15th (21:27), freshman Juliana Mount ranks 18th (21:36) and junior Samantha Lewis is 20th (21:43).
Weber and McKinnon are redshirting this season.
Regional rankings: The Beavers are not ranked in the West Region by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Pac-12 schools in the Nov. 2 regional rankings are Oregon (1); Stanford (3); Washington (4); Arizona State (8); California (9); Arizona (14) and UCLA (15). Colorado (2) and Utah (3) are ranked in the Mountain Region.
National rankings: No. 2 Colorado leads five Pac-12 teams ranked in the Nov. 3 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) top-30 poll. Oregon (4), Stanford (11), Washington (12) and Utah (20) are also ranked.
Up next: The NCAA Championships are scheduled for Nov. 21 at Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. The 31-team field will consist of 18 automatic qualifiers, from nine regionals around the country, and 13 at-large selections.
For more information: Follow the team by Facebook at Facebook.com/OSUTrackCrossCountry or on Twitter at twitter.com/@beavers_track.
