Back After A Year's Absence, Dellinger Meet Offers Early Season Gauge For Handful Of Top 25 Cross Country Programs

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

The 14th Bill Dellinger Cross Country Invitational returns this week to Springfield, Ore. as the intensity begins to build for the 2021 fall season. 

Thursday's meet at Pine Ridge Golf Club (formerly Springfield Golf Club) lands on one of the busiest weeks of the year in Eugene. Students at the University of Oregon are moving back onto campus after the summer break and the No. 3-ranked Ducks football team has a home game Saturday. 

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The lack of available hotel space caused the fourth-ranked Arkansas women to adjust their travel plans to and choose to stay in Corvallis, about 45 minutes north of Eugene. 

"We're going to flash in there on Wednesday, race on Thursday night and then shoot it home on Friday," Arkansas coach Lance Harter said. 

Still, the Razorbacks are looking forward to the West coast trip and the chance to run at the Dellinger Invitational for the first time since the meet started in 2007 and 2008. Both years, Arkansas finished second to Oregon. 

"We want to go out there and test the waters," Harter said. "Last year we were restricted to the SEC only and so we kind of had a limited exposure to what cross country was all about."

Arkansas returns senior Lauren Gregory, who was a member of the 2019 national championship team and won the Mizzou Opener on Sept. 3. Krissy Gear and Kennedy Thomson give the team a trio of potential front-runners.   

The women's field, which will run 6,000 meters, also includes No. 17 Boise State, No. 23 Oregon State, No. 24 Oregon and No. 25 Colorado State. 

The host Ducks won the Lewis & Clark Opener on Sept. 1 by sweeping the first nine spots, led by Alessia Zarbo, a redshirt sophomore from France.

The No. 7 Oregon men, led by Cooper Teare, will race in a field that includes No. 19 Portland and No. 25 Gonzaga over 8,000 meters. 

Teare, who was fourth at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 5,000 meters in June, placed ninth in the 2017 Dellinger Invitational and fourth in 2019. 

Oregon also returns NCAA qualifier Jackson Mestler, Reed Brown and Jack Yearian, and adds Cincinnati transfer Aaron Bienenfeld, who placed 16th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in March. 

The Pilots won the Portland State Rust Buster in Portland on Sept. 3 with Matt Strangio running to his first collegiate win. 

The meet is always meaningful to Gonzaga coach Pat Tyson, who ran for coach Dellinger and the Ducks in the early 1970s. Gonzaga advanced the NCAA cross country championships for the first time last March and the Bulldogs return James Mwaura, who was ninth in the NCAA 10,000 meters and competed in the Olympic Trials.