LOUISVILLE, Ky. ? The Oregon women can be forgiven for breaking into an impromptu victory dance atop the awards podium at the 2012 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday.
The Ducks, who claimed the national title with 114 points on a sunny day at E.P. ?Tom? Sawyer State Park, were simply relieved to have the first-place trophy in their hands.
After all, the immediate race aftermath turned into an emotional roller-coaster ride for both Oregon and runner-up Providence when NCAA meet officials incorrectly announced that the Friars had won.
A closer look at the individual results revealed that UO senior Alexi Pappas ? who had finished eighth overall ? had not been counted in the original team scores, along with a few other runners because of a timing malfunction.
Meet officials made the situation worse when they prematurely broadcast the erroneous results, causing disbelief in the UO camp, which had already calculated an easy victory, and jubilation for Providence.
About 30 minutes later, after both Oregon and Florida State filed protests, the results were corrected, the meet announcer apologized, and the Ducks were declared national champions.
?That was bush league,? UO assistant coach Maurica Powell said. ?I had to walk back into a tent and tell seven girls that they didn?t win a national championship. ... I thought the results were screwy, but I was also a little nervous because if they left Alexi out, they easily could have left somebody else?s top kids out.
?I didn?t know what to think. It was tough because of the way it went down. The kids kind of got robbed of a celebration for awhile.?
For the record, Oregon captured its third NCAA women?s cross country title, matching the achievements of the 1983 and ?87 squads. Providence was second with 183 points, followed by Stanford at 198 and top-ranked Florida State at 202.
?Until you get there on the starting line, and run the race, you never, ever really know,? UO coach Robert Johnson said. ?But as you can see, that was just a straight kick-ass job by all of the girls. ... They were flat-out phenomenal.?
Senior Jordan Hasay came up short in her bid for an individual NCAA title, but it was her third-place finish in 19 minutes, 28.6 seconds over the 6,000-meter course that set the tone for the Ducks.
Hasay and three others ? Iowa State?s Betsy Saina, Dartmouth?s Abbey D?Agostino and Wichita State?s Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton ? were all together, running side-by-side, with 250 meters left in the race.
Saina finally surged into the lead over the final 50 meters and was able to hang on for the victory in 19:27.9. D?Agostino and Hasay finished in a dead heat, just a stride back. Both were timed in 19:28.6, but after looking at film, the second-place nod went to D?Agostino.
Tuliamuk-Bolton, who pushed the pace early, settled for fourth at 19:33.7.
?Those last few steps, it?s so hard, because it?s right there,? Hasay said. ?For some reason, it wasn?t meant to be, but we won the team title, and I would rather have that than the individual title.?
Hasay, who was second and third in the past two NCAA meets, held back at the end, determined not to repeat the mistake she made last year when she went first and was reeled in by NCAA champion Sheila Reid of Villanova.
?I really wanted to be the first Oregon woman (to win a title) and the first FootLocker (high school) champion,? Hasay said. ?I executed my plan, and I did everything I could, so I can?t be upset. I have a lot of time ahead of me to shoot for individual titles, so I?m going to enjoy this.?
Pappas, the transfer from Dartmouth College, who joked that she must have been wearing her ?invisibility cloak? to not be included in the initial results, was eighth in 19:43.9.
?It?s been a long season, and we?ve made a conscious effort to build a team,? Pappas said. ?That?s what it takes on days like these. This is an admirable group of women, and really different people, girls who would not be friends otherwise. But together, we are unstoppable.?
Katie Conlon, a senior transfer from Jamestown College, an NAIA school in North Dakota, was the next Duck across the finish line in 39th place in 20:15.0, her best showing of the year. She was followed by two freshmen ? Allie Woodward (44th, 20:19.5) and Annie Leblanc (68th, 20:31.5).
Oregon?s other two runners were senior Sarah Penney (105th, 20:50.7) and freshman Abbey Leonardi (162nd, 21:12.2).
?The race played right into my hands,? Conlon said. ?I was able to get out hard enough but not too hard. That?s been my biggest struggle this season. At Pac-12s, I didn?t get out hard enough, and then at regionals, I got out too hard. Today, I struck the right balance.?
The same can be said for the entire UO team.
Woodward and Penney might not have their best races of the season, but Pappas, Conlon and Leblanc all overperformed to help bring the 20th national championship in UO history back to Eugene.
Remarkably, other than Hasay, all of the Duck runners were making their NCAA debuts.
?That?s really scary,? said Powell, who returned to coaching this season after an 18-month hiatus following the birth of her second son.
?I can?t thank Robert Johnson enough for convincing me to come back. ... I recruited all these kids and then I abandoned them, but I came back this year, and without Robert, that wouldn?t have happened, and I wouldn?t be standing here today, so proud of all these women.?
And, after further review, that?s certainly worth celebrating.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rgsports/~3/cTzuQNMkJIY/hasay-ncaa-state-women-oregon.html.csp
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