USC
NCAA West Regional
USC Finishes 16th At NCAA West Cross Country Regional
November 10, 2007 | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 10, 2007
The young USC women's cross country team placed 16th out of 31 teams at the NCAA West Regional Cross Country Championship hosted by by Oregon at the Springfield Country Club in Eugene, Ore. today (Nov. 10), led by freshman Sarah Cocco's 18th-place finish.
For USC, which featured one senior, two freshmen and three sophomore runners, it was the first time USC had entered at team at the NCAA West Regional since 2004 when they placed 14th with 432 points. This year, USC had 391 points, its best score (lowest) at the NCAA West Regional since scoring 334 points as a team in 1998, when they finished 11th.
The West Regional, which was one of nine 6K qualifying races for the NCAA Championships run today, featured seven of the top 35 ranked teams in the country, including No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Oregon, No. 5 Arizona State and No. 7 Washington.
USC's dynamic freshman duo of Sarah Cocco (18th - 20:57.25) and Zsofia Erdelyi (30th - 21:15.50) led USC and made the Trojans just one of six teams that had at least its top two runners place in the first 30 finishers out of the 212 entrants, the others being the top five finishers: Stanford, Oregon, Arizona State, Washington and UC Santa Barbara. USC, which placed eighth at the Pac-10 Championships, finished ninth among Pac-10 schools in this race, only defeating UCLA which placed 23rd with 597 points.
Cocco impressed everyone with her strong race considering she struggle with a fever all night before the race and wasn't really feeling well. The end result is that she has a chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships being held on Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, Ind. If UC Santa Barbara gets one of the at-large team berths, then Cocco has a chance to qualify as one of the at-large individuals. The announcement of the qualifying teams and at-large individuals will be made Sunday (Nov. 11) night.
"I think Sarah ran her best race as a Trojan," said USC cross country coach Tom Walsh. "She had a fever and really gutted it out."
"Zsofia really came back in this race," added Walsh. "She ran the middle of the race very well and finished strong at the end of the race. It was a good way for her to end her season"
USC's third finisher was senior captain Laura Meyers who placed 84th with a time of 22:05.30. She was followed by sophomore Bridget Helgerson, with a time of 22:44.25, good for 126th place.
Sophomore Katherine Ellis was USC's final scoring runner, placing 139th with a time of 22:57.25. USC's sixth runner was sophomore Chanel Fischetti who placed 148th with a time of 23:05.50.
"I thought it was a good experience and sets our team up for next year with something to build upon," said Walsh. "I was really happy with the way the season progressed and was pleased with the way the girls competed all season long."
It was a solid season for USC with the freshmen Cocco (2) and Erdelyi (1) combining to win three races and Meyers winning another, making it four individual wins for the Trojans in five regular season races. Also, sophomores Helgerson, Ellis and Fischetti made great strides and competed well against the toughest of competition, while the freshman class gained valuable experience. Cocco ran the fastest 5K time by a Trojan since 1998 when she won the Aztec Invitational with a time of 17:43 and set a school record with a 6K time of 20:00 in winning the Pepperdine Invitational. When Erdelyi won the UC San Diego Triton Invitational, she did it with a time of 21:50.4, which set a new course record.
