Oregon Opens Cross Country Season Saturday

EUGENE – The University of Oregon men’s and women’s cross country teams will open their 2007 season when they host Portland State in the Sunriver Open beginning at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Meadows Golf Course in Sunriver.

The Oregon women will get things underway with a three-mile race that begins at 5:30 p.m., followed by the men’s four-mile run that starts at 6 p.m.

The competition marks the first of six in-state appearances on the Ducks’ eight-meet schedule, highlighted by the Sept. 29 Bill Dellinger Invitational and the Nov. 10 NCAA West Region Championships. Both home meets will take place at the Springfield Country Club.

The men are coming off of first-place finishes in the Pacific-10 Conference and NCAA West Region championships before finishing in a tie for fifth in the NCAA national championship meet.

The second-annual Dellinger Invitational will feature 15 of the nation’s top men’s and women’s Arkansas, which finished fifth in last year’s NCAA Championships and won the women’s Dellinger Invitational title. Additional NCAA championship qualifiers expected to be on hand on the women’s side include BYU, Colorado State, Georgia and Wake Forest.

Challenging Oregon’s men’s defending Dellinger Invitational team title will be NCAA runner-up Wisconsin as well as six other schools that competed in the 2006 NCAA national championships.

The Ducks will compete twice more in the state of Oregon prior to the championship portion of the schedule -- splitting their squads and competing in the Clackamas Community College’s Mike Hodges Invitational Oct. 13 as well as the Pre-NCAA Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind., as well as the Beaver Classic Oct. 20 in Corvallis.

Oregon returns to Corvallis the following week to take part in the Pac-10 Conference Championships Oct. 27 at Trysting Tree Golf Course before hosting the regional championships on Nov. 10. The NCAA Championships will take place Monday, Nov. 19, on the LaVern Gibson Course in Terre Haute, Ind.

For directions to this week’s meet in Sunriver, visit the Meadows Golf Course site at www.sunriver-resort.com.