Women’s cross country team finds silver lining in 9th place finish


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On paper, the USC women’s cross country team’s 9th place finish at the Pac-10 Championships on Friday did not reflect the effort the team has put into the season.

However, all nine USC runners had their best race of the season, and coach Tom Walsh said it’s hard to be upset.

“Really I can’t complain,” Walsh said. “I’m very proud of these girls.”

Walsh noted the discrepancy between USC’s number of scholarship runners and the rest of the stacked Pack-10 conference.

“When you have one scholarship runner on your roster and you’re competing against everyone who’s got five or six, it’s like taking a pocketknife into a gunfight,” Walsh said. “And we held our own.”

Defending Pac-10 champion Washington won the 6K race, which took place at Sky Links golf course in Long Beach on Friday. Oregon finished 2nd, followed by Arizona State, Stanford, California, Arizona, UCLA, Oregon State and host USC. Washington State finished last.

For the Women of Troy, junior Zsofia Erdelyi once again led the way, finishing 22nd overall. Junior Christine Cortez was 60th overall, followed by freshman Kathleen Moloney, who ran in her first ever conference championship.

Senior Katherine Ellis and junior Zara Lukens, who ran as teammates in high school, rounded out USC’s scoring runners, finishing 67th and 68th overall, respectively. For Walsh, Lukens and the freshman Moloney stood out.

“I was really impressed with Zara and Kathleen,” Walsh said. “Those two really came up huge and ran well for us. Both of them ran the best race of their life by a lot.”

Although most of the girls had career-high performances, Walsh noted that they still were not satisfied.

“They weren’t happy with the 9th place finish,” Walsh said. “However, they were happy with their effort. A lot of them came up to me afterward and told me they left it all out on the course. To me, that’s all you can ask.”

As for Erdelyi, USC’s most talented runner, Walsh said that she is hitting her stride just in time for NCAA West Regionals on Nov. 14.

“She’s falling off later and later in the race as the season goes on,” Walsh said of Erdelyi. “She competed really hard on Friday. She’s almost where she needs to be.”

Despite the results, the Women of Troy still had much to be proud of. As the host of the Pac-10 Championships, USC had a strong showing of support in Long Beach.

“We had close to 700 people show up at this meet,” Walsh said. “It was a really well-run meet. The other schools were really impressed with the course. There were very few complaints at all.”