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After finishing second the past two years, Stanford's Kathy Kroeger captured her first individual title at the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships on Saturday at the Robinson Ranch Golf Club in Santa Clarita.

The senior from Franklin, Tenn., covered the 6-kilometer (3.73-mile) course in 20 minutes, 6 seconds, to beat runner-up and 2010 champion Jordan Hasay of Oregon by four seconds. Kroeger led the Stanford women to third place.

In the 8K men's race, sophomore Joe Rosa paced Stanford to a second-place team finish, behind defending champion Colorado. Rosa's sixth place paced the Cardinal top five to top-30 finishes. Stanford scored 82 points to finish just ahead of third-place Oregon (105) and fourth-place Arizona State (109). Colorado placed six runners in the top 14 on the way to scoring 69 points.

Arizona's Lawi Lalang successfully defended his individual men's title, covering the 4.97-mile course in 22:49, to edge teammate Stephen Sambu by one second. Each ran a 4:36-mile pace.

Benjamin Johnson was 10th (23:43), Tyler Stutzman 17th (24:03), Miles Unterreiner 20th (24:10), and Erik Olson 30th (24:18) to round out the Cardinal scorers.

Following Kroeger, the Stanford women got a 10th place from Aisling Cuffe (20:32), 13th from Jessica Tonn (20:37), 22nd from Cayla Hatton (20:52), and 37th from Megan Lacy (21:25) to score 82 points in a tight team competition. The top four teams all were under 100 points, with Oregon scoring 47, followed by Arizona (69), Stanford, and Washington (92).

Kroeger became the first Stanford woman to win the conference title since Arianna Lambie won the last of her three consecutive Pac-10 championships in 2007. In all, five Stanford women have combined to win eight Pac-10/12 individual titles.

As a whole, the Pac-12 is regarded as the strongest cross-country conference in the nation. Four women's teams are among the top 6 in the USTFCCCA rankings, and three men's teams are among the top 8. Stanford's men entered the meet with a No. 3 national ranking, and the women were No. 4.

Stanford next competes at the NCAA West Regional Championships on Nov. 9 in Seattle, followed by the NCAA Championships on Nov. 17 in Louisville, Ky.

Women's basketball
Stanford Women's Basketball will open the 2012-13 campaign ranked fourth in the Associated Press Preseason Poll, the AP announced Saturday.

The announcement marks the fifth straight season in which the Cardinal women have opened a campaign ranked in the AP's top five. Stanford opened last season in the fifth slot after earning rankings of second, second and third in the falls of 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Baylor topped Saturday's preseason poll, receiving all 40 first-place votes, followed by Connecticut and Duke. Maryland took the fifth spot to round out the top five.

Stanford, which on Monday was tabbed by Pac-12 coaches to capture its 13th straight conference title, will face off with Baylor Nov. 16 at the Jack in the Box Rainbow Wahine Classic in an early-season marquee matchup. Connecticut visits Maples Pavilion, the site where the Cardinal ended the Huskies' NCAA-record 90-game winning streak in December 2010, on Dec. 29 for a contest that will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

In all Stanford faces four members of the preseason Top 25, as Pac-12 rival California checked in at No. 13 and Tennessee, which Stanford will visit Dec. 22, opened at No. 20.

This year's Cardinal squad returns four starters from 2011-12's NCAA Final Four lineup that went 35-2 overall and 18-0 in the Pac-12, highlighted by a junior class featuring All-American and 2012-13 Wade Trophy candidate Chiney Ogwumike (15.0 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 58.3 FG pct., 45 blocks in 2011-12).

All-Pac-12 guard Toni Kokenis (9.5 ppg, 3.57 apg, Pac-12-best 2.24 assist-to-turnover ratio). Senior forward Joslyn Tinkle (8.7 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 39.7 3-pt FG pct., team-leading 47 blocks) and sophomore guard Amber Orrange (4.8 ppg, 3.03 apg, 1.97 assist-to-turnover ratio), a Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honorable mention last year, round out the returning starters.

Sophomores Taylor Greenfield, a Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honorable mention last year, and Bonnie Samuelson also return, along with redshirt junioor Mikaela Ruef, who missed all but three games last season with a foot injury.

Following exhibitions Nov. 1 and Nov. 3 against Corban University and Vanguard University, respectively, the Cardinal will open the 2012-13 campaign at home Friday, Nov. 9 against Fresno State.

— Stanford Athletics

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