Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Title caps emotional week for UA cross country squad

In its 18 sports, men’s and women’s combined, Arizona had won 22 Pac-12 championships this century. That’s how hard it is.

That’s 22 out of 234 total opportunities, or a bit less than a 10 percent success rate.

So when coach James Li’s women’s cross country team won its first-ever Pac-12 championship Saturday – the school had been 0 for 27 since it began official competition against league foes in 1986 – he knew what it meant.

“The margin for error is so small,’’ he told me Wednesday. “This conference is unbelievable. Usually if you finish even in the top half, you are a nationally-ranked team.’’