Corvallis, Ore – Junior Sylvia Veal (Aloha, Ore.) placed 32^nd out of 86 runners to lead the Oregon State women’s cross country team to a seventh place finish at the 2007 Pac-10 Cross Country Championships Saturday morning.

The morning proved to be clear and sunny at Trysting Tree Golf Course, as the Beavers edged out USC, California and UCLA in the team competition with a total of 197 points.

“I thought it was a good race.  Fifth place was our goal, but last year we scored 238 points and this year we scored 197 so we improved by 41 points,” Oregon State head coach Kelly Sullivan said. “Like I told the ladies, our number one lady this year was our number 11 lady last year. 

Casey Masterson is our number two runner, and she is a freshman.  Jennifer Macias, freshman.  Melanie Cleland, freshman. It’s a tough conference, you just can’t get around it.  The women’s depth is for real.  We would have loved to have fifth, but when you improve by 41 points it’s  about as good as we could have done today.”

Veal nearly broke 21 minutes, posting a time of 21:08 on the 6,000 meter course. Freshman Casey Masterson (Eugene, Ore.) finished close behind in 34^th in a time of 21:12. Freshman Jennifer Macias (Hermiston, Ore.) finished 35^th to round out the top three finishers for Oregon State in a time of 21:17.

“We’ve been training for this for the past two weeks, so the legs were a little tired, but we just wanted to see what we could do,” Veal said. “For the first lap I felt pretty good. The second loop was a little more tough, but my teammate Casey Masterson came up behind me, and we started to work together.”

Stanford’s Arianna Lambie won her third Pac-10 title finishing one second ahead of teammate Teresa McWalters, both finishing under the 20 minute mark with times of 19:40 and 19:41, leading the Cardinal to the team title with 48 points.

Oregon finished second with 64, Arizona State and Washington tied for third with 68. Washington State finished fifth with 136, and Arizona finished above the Beavers with 188 points.

The Ducks won the men’s competition with Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott and Galen Rupp taking the top two spots, followed by Austin Ramos of Stanford.

Oregon State returns to action on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the NCAA West Regional, hosted by the University of Oregon. The races are set to begin at 10:00 a.m.

Pac-10 Championships Team Results: 1. Stanford 48; 2. Oregon 64; T3. Arizona State 68; T3. Washington 68; 5. Washington State 136; 6. Arizona 188; 7. Oregon State 197; 8. USC 215; 9. California 237; 10. UCLA 248.

Pac-10 Championships Individual Results (Top five and Oregon State finishes out of 86): 1. Arianna Lambie, Stanford, 19:40; 2. Teresa McWalters, Stanford, 19:41; 3. Alexandra Kosinski, Oregon, 19:54; 4. Nicole Blood, Oregon, 20:08; 5. Jenna Kingma, Arizona State, 20:09; 32. Sylvia Veal, Oregon State, 21:08; 34. Casey Masterson, Oregon State, 21:12; 35. Jennifer Macias, Oregon State, 21:17; 46. Melanie Cleland, Oregon State, 21:34; 50. Krista Stangel, Oregon State, 21:44; 51. Nicole Crawford, Oregon State, 21:45; 54. Katie Dye, Oregon State, 21:53; 63. Hayley Oveson, Oregon State, 22:04; 67. Holly Thomson, Oregon State, 22:07; 69. Abby Chesimet, Oregon State, 22:16.

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