Luchini helps Stanford claim cross country title

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – North Carolina’s Shalane Flanagan and Colorado’s Jorge Torres won individual titles Monday at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Stanford placed four runners in the top 10 and defeated Wisconsin 47-107 for the men’s team title. Brigham Young’s women repeated as team champions, outdistancing Stanford 85-113.

Former Ellsworth High School star Louie Luchini finished fifth and was Stanford’s second runner to cross the finish line behind third-place Grant Robison. Luchini’s time was 29:41.

Flanagan, a junior from Marblehead, Mass., returned to the Indiana State campus where her mother, Cheryl Treworgy, became a national collegiate champion and set a marathon world record in 1971.

“She and a bunch of other women have made it easier for us today to come back and run,” Flanagan said. “We should really appreciate what those in front of us have done.”

Torres, son of a Mexican-born Chicago jeweler, became just the second American to win the men’s race in a decade. The other was Adam Goucher, also of Colorado, in 1998.

Torres had the support not only of cheering family members from his hometown of Wheeling, Ill., but from his twin brother, Ed, who finished 10th for Colorado.

“I had the strength and courage to go out and do it,” Jorge Torres said. “I told myself no one was going to take it away from me.”

Torres covered the 10,000-meter course in 29 minutes, 4.7 seconds. Arkansas’ Alistair Cragg, a South African, was the only runner who could stay with him and finished second in 29:06.0.

Stanford’s Robison was third in 29:36.9. Butler’s Mark Tucker, an Australian, was fourth in 29:37.5.

Two Kenyans, defending champion Boaz Cheboiywo of Eastern Michigan and 1999 winner David Kimani of Alabama, fell off the pace near the 7-kilometer mark and faded at the finish. Cheboiywo was seventh and Kimani 11th.

Besides Robison and Luchini, Stanford’s front pack included Donald Sage (sixth) and Ian Dobson (ninth). The fifth scoring runner was Adam Tenforde in 29th.

In men’s standings, Eastern Michigan finished third, defending champ Colorado fourth and Oregon fifth. Arkansas, the No. 2-ranked team and winner of 11 championships since 1984, was sixth.