Sept. 1, 2011

Women's Overall Results 

Men's Overall Results 

OSU vs. Portland 

OSU vs. Portland State 

CORVALLIS, Ore. -Oregon State's women's cross country team won the second-annual John Frank Memorial Invitational, at Avery Park in Corvallis, Ore., Thursday evening.

 Just seven women suited up for OSU - four ran unattached - but the Beavers took the overall women's 4,500 meter event. The men's group ran a 6,400 meter race, following the women's event.

 Sophomore Audrey Botti also won the individual title for OSU, her first as a Beaver, with a time of 16:00. Three of her teammates, including sophomore Erin Jones(16:29), senior Olivia Poblacion (16:34) and sophomore Emily Wheeler (16:44) finished in the top-10.

 "Overall, it was a success," coach Kelly Sullivan said. "I was pleased. Audrey has improved a ton, and it's great to see her running up front. And Erin Jones took it out pretty hard, so that's always a good sign.

 "We still have a lot of question marks. We didn't run everybody, today. And certainly, looking to a month from now, we'll have everybody out. We have lots of potential."

 Botti's victory was special, not just because it was her first but because she succeeded in proving to herself that she's a winner. With a new, talented group of women at the helm, Botti wanted to play a bigger role.

 "I actually set a goal for myself to win it, and I've never really done that before," she said. "It was a different strategy for me. I just set higher expectations for myself, this season."

Other Beaver finishers included junior Whitney Pitman (16:47), senior Marsha Lampi (17:14) and sophomoreHilary Sharpe (17:38).

Teams that participated in the John Frank Memorial Invitational this year included the OSU women's team, the Portland men's and women's team and the Portland State men's and women's program. Also in the race was the Corvallis Running Project, the University of Oregon Running Club and unattached runners spanning from college runners to OSU alumni.

 The John Frank Memorial Invitational is held to honor John Frank who was a distance and middle distance runner for Oregon State in the early 1980s, but died in an industrial accident.