Beavers Set to Open Season Saturday at Sundodger Invitational

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State cross country team, under the direction of first year head coach Louie Quintana, opens the 2017 season on Saturday at the Sundodger Cross Country Invitational in Seattle, Wash.

"I'm excited and anxious to get started. Having to miss our first meet was a little bit of a challenge," said Quintana. "We intended to open a lot more athletes at the Oregon XC Preview. We are able to run 12 girls in Seattle this week, and we have delayed the opening for two or three of our athletes for later in the fall.

This is a great test to see where we are at, we have a good barometer, good competition. We are going to see where we are at following the race and make some adjustments and move forward."

The Beavers will field a twelve-woman unit, with the remainder of the team will hold in Corvallis to continue training.

"We are anxious to get going, I know a lot of athletes have been putting in a lot of great work over the last four weeks with us in practice, and even more so over the summer," added Quintana.

OSU's projected runners are graduate transfer Colette Richter; seniors Holly Cavalluzzo and Kayla Kopecek; juniors Nicole Goecke, Kaely Gordon, Sam McKinnon, Gwyneth McMorris and Juliana Mount; sophomores Emily Bacon and Lexi Reed; and freshman Audrey Lookner and Rebecca Ledsham.

"I think we are putting together a pretty specific plan, and the athletes that are competing they are ready to go," said Quintana. "Some of them have simply needed an opportunity to compete as they haven't really run cross country prolifically in their career at Oregon State, and others are dialed in and ready to run.

Certainly we are showcasing most of the women who will end up in our top-seven at the end of the year, with the exception of a few. We are running a solid group of individuals, but this is a great chance for a lot of the women who are outside that bubble, that are looking to continue to get better, to move into the top-10 for when we start to select our roster later in October for the conference championships."

The women's 6,000-meter race begins first at 11 a.m.; the 8,000-meter men's race follows at 11:35 a.m. The race will start and finish on a grass playing field, with the course being a mixture of grass, dirt, light gravel, and bark chips.

The field includes Oregon State, Creighton, Eastern Washington, Hawaii, Nevada, Portland State, Santa Clara, Seattle, and Washington.

"Washington is an excellent team, and our goal is to continue to close the gap on a program like that," said Quintana.

Oregon State is ranked No. 12 in the West Region in the second week of the regional poll from the USTFCCCA. Washington (4) and Nevada (14) are both ranked in their respective regional polls. The Huskies are also ranked fourth overall in the national poll.

"I think Nevada is a program on the rise in the mountain region," Quintana said. "They are always a good marker for us and have been competitive over the last few years.

And certainly there are some up and coming programs; Eastern Washington has had some great individuals over the last three or four years and their coach has done a terrific job. Hawaii too is an emerging program in the west region so this meet is a great test for us, because as we go to the Dellinger Invitational in a few weeks the competition will ramp up immensely."

Returning Beavers: Senior Holly Cavalluzzo returns for the Beavers after redshirting from an ankle surgery in 2016. Cavalluzzo was Oregon State's top finisher in every meet during the 2015 season, and currently ranks second on the career 6,000- meter list (20:30) and 5,000-meter list (16:55).

"I don't think I have ever been so excited to run, I have absolutely loved every single moment since my return," said redshirt senior Cavalluzzo. "I'm very thankful for everything the coaches and trainers have done to help me get to where I am, and I'm very happy and excited to be back."

Junior Juliana Mount returns for the Beavers after being the No. 2 finisher for Oregon State at both the Pac-12 meet and the NCAA West Regional Meet in 2016. Mount sits at No. 5 on the career 6,000-meter list (20:53) at Oregon State, and no. 11 on the career 5,000-meter list (17:16).

A New Era: In the offseason, Oregon State announced the hiring of new head coach Louie Quintana. He comes to Corvallis after a highly successful 16-year coaching tenure at Arizona State University. Quintana has coached 48 All-Americans and 27 Pac-12/MPSF champions.

"Louie's thoughtful approach and vision for our program stood out to our search committee," Oregon State University Vice President/Director of Athletics Scott Barnes said. "He was a highly accomplished college and prep student-athlete who will relate well to current and future members of our teams. His commitment to student-athlete growth academically, personally and as an athlete are important factors that ultimately led us to Coach Quintana. We are very excited about what lies ahead for our program under Coach Quintana and welcome him to Beaver Nation."

Regional Rankings: The Beavers were ranked No. 12 in the West Region of the second regional rankings released on Sept. 11 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Regional rankings are determined subjectively by a single member coach in each respective region.

Eight Pac-12 teams we ranked in the West Region: Oregon (1), Stanford (2), Washington (4), California (7), Arizona State (8), UCLA (9), Arizona (10), and Oregon State (12). Two Pac-12 schools were ranked in the Mountain Region: Colorado (1), Utah (5).

Up Next: The Beavers are back in action in two weeks at the Dellinger Invitational. Hosted by the University of Oregon, the meet will be held at Springfield Country Club Golf Course on Friday, Sept. 29.

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Beavers Set to Open Season Saturday at Sundodger Invitational

Players Mentioned

Emily Bacon

Holly Cavalluzzo

Nicole Goecke

Kaely Gordon

Rebecca Ledsham

Audrey Lookner

Sam McKinnon

Gwyneth McMorris

Juliana Mount

Lexi Reed

Colette Richter

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