Oregon State Finishes Fifth At Beaver Classic
Oct. 19, 2012
Beaver Classic Women's 6K Results 
| Beaver Classic Men's 8K Results
CORVALLIS, Ore. - In its final race before the Pac-12 Championships, the Oregon State cross country team put together some sterling individual performances on an overcast and rainy day at Avery Park in Corvallis on Friday afternoon, ultimately coming in fifth place overall with a team score of 137.
For her second consecutive race, and first 6K, Samantha Lewis would have been OSU's top finisher. The freshman, who has run three times this season, all unattached, came in ninth place overall with a time of 22:22. Last weekend, Lewis won the Mike Hodges Invitational in under 19 minutes and in her collegiate debut on Sept. 29 she came in 27th at the Charles Bowles Invitational (18:52.02).
"I think she ran an incredible race," Oregon State assistant coach Travis Floeck said of Lewis. "I think she's been building momentum this whole season. When you come in as a freshman that first season is always pretty challenging, but she's running extremely well when you put it all in perspective. That's a great time for this course."
Lacey London paced the Beavers' scorers in what could arguably be considered the best cross country performance of her career. The sophomore motored through the course in 22:48 to finish 20th and was trailed closely by Whitney Pitman and Raelyn Robinson. Pitman came in 24th (23:10) while Robinson was 25th (23:11).
"That's definitely Lacey's best cross country race since she's been here," Floeck said. "It's a really big deal for her, not having run cross country in high school and having taken a year off as a freshman. For someone who used to be an 800-meter runner to run in the 22's in a 6K was awesome. You could see she was running really tough and with a lot of heart."
Shannon Mahoney and Lauren Graebner rounded out OSU's top five finishers, coming in 38th (23:43) and 63rd (24:21), respectively. Hilary Sharpe and Latane Cox completed the Classic within four seconds of each other, with the former crossing in 24:33 (69th) and the latter in 24:37 (70th).
Victoria took the team title, putting five runners within the top eight scorers, and was followed by Portland, Portland State and a team from the Corvallis Running Project which included OSU assistant coach Laura Harmon (12th; 22:30).
The lineup chosen to compete at the Pac-12 Championships is not set in stone until at least Wednesday. But that presumptive group, which did not compete, was on hand to cheer on their teammates and undoubtedly received a mental boost from watching Oregon State battle a challenging field.
"I think what these women did here, they did last week too," Floeck said. "All their teammates who are going to be running at the Pac-12 meet were here watching and when you see your teammates running well that gives you a lot of confidence. I think this program has a lot of momentum right now and all the women who raced today are a big part of that."
The Pac-12 Cross Country Championships are set for Saturday, Oct. 27 at Robinson Ranch Golf Course in Santa Clarita, Calif. The course consists of rolling fairways, no elevation gain and several sharp turns. The women's 6k race, which begins at 9:40 a.m., is made up of two 2K loops and two 1K loops. Live race splits will be available at championships.pac12.com/cross-country.
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