No. 4 Oregon Women Score Championship Record 18 Points; No. 10 Oregon Men End Wisconsin's Reign Of Seven Consecutive Titles; Diana Cherotich, Abdel Laadjel Take Individual Titles

Story and photos by Keenan Gray of DyeStat

VIDEOS & INTERVIEWS | RESULTS

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The days of the Pac-10 Conference are long gone for Oregon, but history somehow finds a way of repeating itself.

The last time the Ducks swept the individual and team cross country titles on both the men's and women's side at a conference meet was the 1988 Pac-10 meet. Nearly 40 years later, the Ducks did it in the Big Ten.

The No. 4 Oregon women and No. 10 Oregon men completed a dominant sweep at the Big Ten Cross Country Championships on Friday at Forest Akers Golf Course in East Lansing, Mich., to kick off its postseason run.

The Oregon women defended their 2024 conference title, scoring a championship record 18 points behind six individual finishers in the top nine. Wisconsin held the previous championship record with 22 points, with five individuals in the top 10, from the 1985 meet.

"I felt like we needed to go dig deep and really put one out there because NCAA is going to be really hard," Oregon women's coach Shalane Flanagan said.

"In order to really be in the conversation, we have to run with confidence, and they felt like they did that today."

Freshman standout Diana Cherotich earned her second Big Ten title in her short time with Oregon, covering the 6-kilometer distance in 19 minutes, 31.3 seconds. Cherotich, who joined Oregon last winter, won the 10,000 meters conference title on the track in the spring at Hayward Field.

Cherotich led a trio of Ducks to 1-2-3 to secure the first six team points. Juliet Cherubet finished second in 19:46.2 and defending Big Ten champion Silan Ayyildiz, in her first race since competing for Turkey at the World Athletics Outdoor Championships in Tokyo, finished third in 19:47.8.

Dalia Frias was the next Duck across the tape in fifth in 19:57, followed by Mia Barnett, another World Championships competitor who represented Sweden, in seventh in 20:10.8 to complete Oregon's top five. Anika Thompson, who grew up 20 minutes north of Eugene in Junction City, Ore., was the sixth Duck in the top 10, finishing ninth in 20:13.4 in her final cross country conference meet.

"It's so inspiring and we're not done yet," Thompson said. "We got more races to come and this a good way to set the tone and we'll build from here."

Finishing second to Oregon by 60 points was No. 12 Penn State, scoring 78 points led by Florence Caron (19:51.7, fourth) and Charlotte Costich (20:11.7, eighth) earning top 10 honors.

Northwestern, entering Friday's meet with the program's highest national ranking ever at No. 8, finished third with 96 points. It's the Wildcats' highest finish at the conference meet since 1985 when they finished second.

No. 20 Washington finished fourth with 103, No. 24 Michigan State, led by Rachel Forsyth in sixth in 19:57.6, finished fifth with 147 and No. 19 Wisconsin finished sixth with 164.

Maryland's Rose Coats earned 10th to round out the top 10 individuals in 20:14.2.

The Oregon men won their first Big Ten cross country title, and first conference title since 2008 in the Pac-10, beating host No. 13 Michigan State 36-68.

Abdel Laadjel took firm control of the men's 8-kilometer race over the final minutes, surging away from Michigan State's Riley Hough to deliver the Ducks the first of 36 points with an individual win in 23:11.6.

"It was years of hard work," Laadjel said, who transferred from Providence last indoor season.

"I knew I had it in me. Just putting it together on the day means a lot. Just doing it on today is really hard, especially coming to Riley Hough's home course and doing it here."

Hough (23:18.5, second) and Thomas Westphal (23:25.8, third) took the next five points after Laadjel crossed the finish line first to get the Spartans on the board. Evan Bishop was the next Duck across the line in 23:28.2 in fourth and Aiden Smith followed in sixth in 23:32.7.

What put Oregon above Michigan State was its top five finishing before the Spartans' third. Dellinger champion Ben Balazs finished 12th in 23:44 and Big Ten indoor 5,000 champion Connor Burns finished 13th in 23:44.9.

Three more Ducks finished in the top 20 in Simeon Birnbaum (23:55.4, 17th), Tayson Echohawk (23:56, 19th) and Jack Meier (23:56.3). Collectively, Oregon earned eight individual All-Conference honors.

"Top to bottom, incredible performance," said Oregon coach Jerry Schumacher, who previously won 11 Big Ten titles while coaching Wisconsin from 1998-2008.

"They all showed up. That was something that was important to us. It was important to every single person on the team."

The seven-time defending conference champions, No. 15 Wisconsin, finished third with 90 points. Three Badgers finished top 10 in Christian de Vaal (23:36.2, eighth), Matan Ivri (23:41.5, ninth) and Liam Newhart (23:41.6, 10th).

No. 25 Michigan took fourth 100 and Washington, led by Jamar Distel in fifth in 23:29.3, took fifth with 135.

Purdue's Douglas Buckeridge finished seventh in 23:35.2.