Hasay finishes third at NCAA's, Oregon wins national title after protest

Posted: Nov 17, 2012 10:51 AM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Nov 17, 2012 8:14 PM

Hasay finishes third, but helps Oregon win NCAA title

Mission Prep Jordan Hasay just missed out on her first national cross country individual title Saturday morning at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. However, the senior's third place finish helped the Oregon women capture their first NCAA team title since 1987 at the E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

Hasay could not outkick Iowa State senior Besty Saina in the final 200 meters of the 6K race. Saina, a 10K runner during the track season, won in 19:27.9. Hasay let up some in the final few meters and finished with Darmouth's Abby D'Agostino in 19:28.6.

The Oregon women easily won the team competition with 114 total points. Providence finished second with 183, Stanford came in third with 198 and top ranked Florida State came in fourth.

However, there was some confusion after the race and Oregon runner Alexi Pappas and a FSU runner were left off the scoring sheet. So for a few moments, Providence was declared the national champion and Oregon dropped to second according to the unofficial results. However, after a protest from Oregon's coach and discussion, officials reinstated the runners and Oregon was named the national champion.

The Ducks captured their third-ever NCAA team title adding to hardware collected in 1983 and 1987.

Cal Poly freshman Laura Hollander took the early lead, but started to fade with about one mile to go. She finished 9th with a time of 19:45.2, which is still the best finish ever by a Cal Poly runner at the Division I Championships. Hollander was just the third Cal Poly woman to qualify for the NCAA D-I Championships. She completes a stellar freshman year that included a record-breaking performance at the Big West Conference Championships where she won the title and earned the program's first-ever Conference Women's Athlete of the Year award and fifth Women's Freshman of the Year in the last seven years.

Hasay was coming off her third-straight NCAA West Regional title, a race where she outkicked Hollander down the stretch. She helped lead the Ducks to their first Regional and Pac-12 Conference titles since 1995.

Hasay ends her collegiate cross country career with one second place finishe and two third place finishes at the NCAA Championships. The Mission Prep graduate captured one Pac-12 individual title and three NCAA Regional crowns.