Michigan State will travel to Oregon for the Bill Dellinger Invitational as a pre-cursor to the big football match-up on the next day.  The Michigan State women were 6th at last year's NCAA meet and Oregon was 14th.  The Oregon men were fith and the Michigan State men did not run.  The women's race is potentially the more interesting race.

    Michigan State is returning it's top 4 and Oregon is returning all of its runners from the NCAA meet.   The Oregon women have added three potential all-Americans and could have three more athletes at 100%.  Because of Coach Maurica Powell's experience in developing talent I have put Oregon second in my XC rankings and Michigan State is fourth.  In this race Michigan State is running it's top four from the NCAA meet and the first three finished ahead of Oregon's entered runners (#4 was only five spots behind Oregon's #1 who is not running).  

    None of Michigan State's runners ran at the Jeff Drenth Memorial last week.  They brought one of the strongest rosters in cross country for their debut meet.  Defending Big 10 champ Michigan State is led by veteran senior Leah O'Conner (44th in 2013).  On the track she won an NCAA title in the steeplechase.    Sophomore Rachel Schulist (50th in 2013) was ninth at the NCAA 5k.  Junior Katie Landwehr fell over the second to last barrier in the Big 10 Steeple final and dropped from 2nd to 19th.  JUnior Lindsay Clark (71st at 2013 NCAA XC) was 7th in the Big 10 5k last year.  All four will be at the Dellinger Invitational.  They did graduate #5 runner Megan Rodgers.  They do return senior Sara Kroll.  She won the 2012 Big 10 XC meet and finished 53rd at the 2012 NCAA XC meet.  At Dellinger have a veteran group and did not bring a single freshman.  

    Oregon's women's team debuts redshirt freshman Alli Cash and redshirt sophomore transfer Brianna Nerud.  They join redshirt senior Megan Patrignelli (#1 Oregon runner most of season, #2 at NCAA and 70th), developing sophomore Maggie Schmaedick (81st at 2013 NCAA meet, and NCAA cross country vets junior Abbey Leonardi and senior Lindsay Crevoiserat.  Oregon fans won't see the season debuts of top runners freshmen Sarah Baxter and Frida Berge, transfer junior Waverly Neer, all-American Annie Leblanc and re-emerging redshirt junior Molly Grabill, and redshirt sophomore Julia Zrinyi.  The first five have a good shot of running for Oregon at the NCAA meet and it is very likely at least three will be Oregon's top three at the NCAA meet this year.   

    The Oregon women have a steep hill to climb to win their only home meet of the season.  Oregon State, Portland State and Portland will try to develop their resume for NCAA selection.  Tansey Lystad was 18th at the West Regional meet and she is probably the top competitor not from Oregon or Michigan State although all three programs are devoloping and getting stronger.  

    The most interesting debut of this meet is the return to cross country for Oregon redshirt senior Eric Jenkins.  Last year he finished third at the NCAA meet in the 5,000.  He is a former Colonial Athletic Association cross country conference champion while at Northeastern.  He has not run a cross country race since 2011 when he culminated his sophomore season with a 67th place finish at the NCAA meet.  Also of interest is the return from injury by senior Jeramy Elkaim (Oregon's #3 runner, 32nd, at 2012 NCAA West Region).  Hopefully they can overcome the loss of Oregon #2 Parker Stinson and #4 Mac Fleet.  

   The top runner in the country is Oregon sophomore Edward Cheserek.  He won four NCAA titles last school year and almost won a fifth.  He may treat is opening meet as another opportunity to run with his teammate, Jenkins, just like he debuted at the Oregon Invitational 5k last year.  

   Cheserek, Jenkins and Elkaim will likely be followed by NCAA veterans junior Matthew Melancon, and seniors Cole Watson and Daniel Winn.  Oregon will only miss NCAA #3 runner senior Tanguy Pepiot and sophomore Jake Leingang but we will see the debut in a Duck uniform for redshirt freshmen Jackson Darland, Bryan Fernandez, Chris Mulverhill, Travis Neuman and Sam Prakel.  Chris Brewer, Ryan Pickering and Matt Jablonski are veterans who may play a part at the NCAA regional and NCAA meet and have already contributed on the conference and regional level.  Freshmen Blake Haney, Kyle Levermore and Mitchell Butler are not expected to run.  

   Junior Caleb Rhynard was fourth at Big 10 and 34th at the NCAA meet last year and should be running with Cheserek and Jenkins.  Michigan State was fifth at the Great Lakes Region last year and did not qualify its team for the NCAA meet.  They bring 4 of the top five runners from that finish and bring the top three runners from the Jeff Drenth Memorial 5k race last week.  They are ranked 5th in the region because the region is getting stronger even though they return their top 7 from last year.  

   American University is also visiting.  They are ranked 12th in the Mid-Atlantic Region.  They are coached by former Duck all-american and 5k US champion Matt Centrowitz and assistant and former Duck Chris Kwiatkowski.  His son Matthew ran for Oregon.  This is the first visit for Matt and his squad to the Bill Dellinger Invitational.

   Portland State will also be a part of the meet and its team is developing under coach Jonathan Marcus.  This year they will bring freshmen from Oregon high schools Richard Castillo and one-time national leader in the boy's 3000 Alejandro Cisneros.