By Jeff Trousdale
Senior David Kinsella and freshman Alfred Kipchumba didn't have a lot of individual expectations coming into last Saturday's Bill Delinger Invitational, hosted by the University of Oregon, but maybe they should have.
Kinsella won the 8k race with a time 24:02.68 and Kipchumba placed second in 24:05.48 to highlight a rainy day at the Springfield Country Club. Their top finishes, as well as a sixth place finish in 24:18.98 by junior Tommy Betterbed, helped the UP men place second out of nine in a loaded field, while the UP women placed sixth out of nine in their 6k race, led by a 13th place finish in 21:16.04 by senior Sifrash Ademe.
Men's Head Coach Rob Conner was happy with the way his top runners performed, but he said the team could have done better than their second place finish to No.1 Oregon.
"This wasn't big enough," Conner said. "You have a chance to beat the top team in the nation on their home course and you let it slip away?"
Conner said his team could have won the event if all of his guys were healthy and if everything had gone right. Two of his top five runners from last year, seniors Colin Longmuir and Justin Houck, did not race, and his 5th runner, senior Michael Quackenbush, was sick.
"If (Quackenbush) was healthy, we would have won this race," Conner said.
Oregon was also missing two of their top runners, Galen Rupp and Kenny Klotz, both top 15 finishers in last year's invitational. Top ranked Oregon (49) and No.7 Portland (56) were followed by No.5 Alabama (62), UCLA (106), No. 21 Cal Poly (144), Weber State (158), No. 12 UTEP (166), Colorado State (186) and Penn State (221).
Kinsella, who is also coming off an injury, was pleased with the way that he and his teammates raced.
"I'm thrilled because I didn't have any individual expectations since I didn't start training before August," Kinsella said. "Everyone ran amazing, I'm really happy with how Alfred ran because I think he was sort of a wild card coming in, but he did really well."
Other finishers for the Pilot men were freshman Matt Frerker (18th), Quackenbush (31st), sophomore Dino Bozzone (32nd) and sophomore Robert Cosby (73rd).
According to Conner, the next step for Portland is to get everyone healthy in preparation for the Pre-National meet in a couple of weeks.
"Betterbed and Quackenbush have missed workouts, David is touch and go, so I think if we just get everyone back and training we'll do well," Conner said.
Health issues seem to be trendy for the Pilots, as the UP women also had difficulties staying healthy in their race.
Junior Dana Morgan finished in 23rd with a time of 21:35.39, but she ran across the finish line with her right leg covered in blood after being spiked in the race. Senior Amie Dahnke appeared to struggle throughout the race, and she collapsed at the finish line in tears after an existing injury flared up during the race.
Head Coach Ian Solof thought that his team could have run better despite it all.
"Overall, I didn't think this was a great performance," Solof said. "This kind of meet is tough because there are so few teams but everyone of them is good."
The UP women also participated in a large invitational the weekend before, which Solof said might have caused them to struggle. Few teams schedule meets one week after another.
"It's tough to come back one week later and race," Solof said. "I doubt that anyone else here did what we did."
Solof and Morgan were both happy with the time spread between the first and fifth runners for the Pilots, which was about 50 seconds.
"We had difficulty with our injuries but our one to five spread was solid," Morgan said. "Even though our team was smaller than we would like I think we still ran well.
No.1 Oregon won the team score with 23 points, followed by No.11 Arkansas (60), Penn State (107), Wake Forest (115), No.23 BYU (126), UP (151), Cal State Fullerton (175), No.14 Colorado State (177) and UTEP (236).
Other Pilot finishers included junior Natalie Hemphill (33rd) with a personal record of 21:50.38, Dahnke (45th), senior Adrienne Nova (47th), and freshman Lyndy Davis (60th).
The UP varsity men and women will race next at the Pre-National meet in Indiana on Oct. 18th.
