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Cross Country:
Laura Olvera Finishes 3rd at NCAA West Regional
November 11, 2006
GRESHAM, Oregon -- Sophomore Laura Olvera placed third individually to help the UC Irvine women's team to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country West Regional held at Blue Lake Park in Gresham, Ore. The Anteater men placed 13th overall. The top-ranked Stanford women's team claimed the West Region title with a team score of 42 points, 30 points ahead of second place UC Santa Barbara (72). The top two teams advance to the NCAA Championships Nov. 20 in in Terre Haute, Ind. Stanford junior Arianna Lambie won the individual title for the second consecutive year, covering the 6,000-meter course in 20:58.85. The UC Irvine women placed eighth with a team score of 264. Olvera led the Anteater women, finishing third individually in a time of 21:16.20. The top four finishers from each regional that are not on qualifying teams automatically advance to the NCAA finals hosted by Indiana State University. Olvera becomes the first UCI runner to qualify for the NCAAs since 2000 when Kareen Nilsson finished 103rd (21:59.5) in Ames, Iowa. Junior Sara Mickelson placed 17th (21:51.11) and will wait to see if she will receive an at-large bid on Sunday (Nov. 12) when the rest of the NCAA field is set. Junior Marie Nguyen placed 42nd (22:31.18 42), while sophomore Emily Romo was 96th (23:31.35). Sophomore Samantha Costantini finished 114th (23:44.50), junior Megan Fairley was 126th (23:59.33) and junior Erinn Kim placed (24:05.22 127). The UC Irvine men finished 13th with a team score of 374. The University of Oregon won the team title with 69 points, finishing 19 points ahead of Stanford (88). Senior Ricky Barnes placed 34th (31:14.87) over 10,000 meters to lead the Anteaters. Sophomore Nick Mosey followed in 45th place (31:37.07 45) and senior Tom Whelan was 92nd (33:00.63). Sophomore Sky Johnston finished in 101st place (33:13.93), while senior Matt Grilli was 105th (33:17.17), senior John Kluve was 110th (33:29.66) and senior Tim Hearst was 135th (34:22.37).
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