PORTLAND, Ore. --- The University of Portland men’s and women’s cross country teams will compete at the 2009 Bill Dellinger Invitational on Friday at Springfield Country Club. The meet features a total of eight nationally ranked teams in both the men’s and women’s fields. The women’s race (5K) will start at 3:30 p.m. and the men’s race (8K) begins at 4:15 p.m. Admission is free.
MEN’S PREVIEW
Host and top-ranked Oregon headlines the field of 10 teams, five of which are ranked. After Oregon, Portland is the next highest ranked team at No. 8 followed by No. 9 Alabama, No. 12 Brigham Young and No. 18 Cal Poly. The rest of the field includes Colorado State, San Francisco, Villanova, UTEP and Weber State.
“I am excited to see where we are at in the context of a race opportunity,” Portland head coach Rob Conner said. “I will be assessing individual fitness based on this effort then make the necessary adjustments for team success later in the season. I see this meet as the first step in a four step process with the ultimate goal being a successful run at the NCAA Championships.”
The men’s field returns nine of the top 20 runners from the 2008 Dellinger, including Alfred Kipchumba (runner-up), Tommy Betterbed (sixth) and Matt Frerker (18th) of Portland, Luke Puskedra (third), Matthew Centrowitz (ninth) and Danny Mercado (15th) of Oregon, Tyson David (seventh) and Emmanuel Bor (11th) of Alabama and Nicodemus Ng’etich (14th) of UTEP. Kipchumba, Puskedra and Ng’etich were all All-Americans at the NCAA Championships last season.
“I feel Oregon is unbeatable,” Conner added. “They have too much depth and experience for us to be concerned with. They feature seven All-Americans while we could potentially be running four freshmen on our team. I think Alabama and BYU are both deeper than we are so it will be fun to see if we can hang with them.”
Portland finished seventh at the 2008 NCAA Championships, while BYU was ninth, Alabama tied for 10th, Cal Poly was 23rd and Villanova was 31st.
The Pilots have competed in three Bill Dellinger Invitationals and have finished second twice to the Ducks and also finished fourth. Last year, Oregon edged Portland by seven points, although Pilots David Kinsella and Kipchumba finished first and second individually.
Conner attended the Bill Dellinger track camp as a high school senior in 1981.
“Bill Dellinger is a living legend and we are proud to honor his legacy by participating in this meet,” Conner said.
Portland returns four runners that competed in the 2008 NCAA Championship meet and also welcomes one of the top recruiting classes in the nation. Freshmen Trevor Dunbar and Joash Osoro are expected to make immediate contributions.
Expected UP Runners at Bill Dellinger
Jared Bassett
Tommy Betterbed
Dino Bozzone
Robert Cosby
Trevor Dunbar
Matthew Frerker
Shane Geiger
Alfred Kipchumba
Lars Erik Malde
Scott Olberding
Joash Osoro
Dan Prahl
