The NCAA cross country meet was sad for Nicole Blood and Alex Kosinski.  For two straight years Blood and Kosinski each finished in the top twelve and the team finished in the top two as a team.  Both have pushed themselves for the team's success. 

Before this year's NCAA cross country meet Nicole Blood intimated in pre-meet interviews that she wanted to avoid the pressure of this being her last cross country meet.  I am not sure what happened at the NCAA meet but it seemed that she did not avoid that pressure (like Jenny Barringer, the prohibitive favorite who collapsed on the course).  She is a competitor and will obviously sacrifice everything for the team.  At the 2008 NCAA indoor meet she went into the indoor 3k as the third fastest competitor but tried to run the first 1k in 3:01, her next was 3:06 and her last was @3:31.  She may have hurt herself the night before when she ran a 4:44 1600 in the distance medley and tried to move the team up from last in the final even though the team was 5.7 seconds out of contention for eighth place.  She finished the season running great at Pac-10s and was third in the NCAA 5k. 

Last year she was hurt in the summer but recovered to earn four all-American awards by running great at the NCAA meet, 6th in the NCAA indoor 3k and helped the team to 6th in the DMR and was second at the NCAA outdoor 5k (she barely held off the competition though because she pushed so hard for the win).  I hope she has a great winter and summer as she has proven herself to be one of the greatest female distance runners ever to wear an Oregon uniform.  I hope she will not worry about where she finishes the rest of the year and just enjoy herself.  I think if she does that she will be very successful in her last year as a Duck.  I will not be surprised if she wins her first NCAA title

I worry about junior Alex Kosinski.  She was obviously very frustrated after last year's NCAA outdoor meet after not making the final and has had trouble at every NCAA track race except the '09 NCAA indoor distance medley anchor.  At this year's cross country meet she had to hurdle a fallen runner from Texas Tech about 600 meters into the race.  She has obviously had some bad breaks and I think she can recover She is a talented and tough runner and a very nice person.  It seems she puts too much pressure on herself and has too high of expectations.  Not all of us can win the race but I love that she expect to and are willing to give everything to do it.   

Please ladies, I am one of the Ducks biggest fans but I don't expect you to win titles.  If you do, that is great!!  Run hard, give all that you have, but the main thing is to enjoy yourself as runners at Oregon.  I used to be a manager on the team and sport is about maximizing yourself, there is no title requirement.  My constant wish is that you get an education and enjoy running at Oregon.  Your memories of your college experience will last a lifetime, make it a good one.