Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Aug 17, 20232 min
Last weekend and over the week, former UCLA runners Mia Barnett, Sam McDonnell, Dalia Frias announced that they would be transferring to Oregon. They had previously run for Virginia, Alabama and Duke, respectively. The still-young trio ultimately joined the Ducks following the recent departure of the Bruins' distance coach, Sean Brosnan.
TSR has already reported Mia Barnett's transfer which you can find here. The Stride Report has also recently learned that, barring the unexpected approval of a waiver, it is unlikely that she will be competing over the next year due to NCAA transfer results
However, the bigger surprise came earlier this evening when Columbia ace Victoria Patterson announced via Instagram that she would also be joining the University of Oregon. The unexpected move comes fairly late in the summer and after TSR had listed the Columbia Lions as a "Just Missed" team.
Both McDonnell and Frias are former high school superstars who, at the prep level, thrived at the mile distance and were incredibly strong in cross country as well.
During their first years of collegiate competition, McDonnell made appearances inside of Alabama's varsity lineup during the fall and later ran 4:19 for 1500 meters. Frias, meanwhile, also made appearances as a cross country scorer for the Duke women while running times of 4:44 (mile) and 9:20 (3k) on the indoor oval.
Both of those women then transferred to UCLA during, or just after, the indoor track season.
However, it's Patterson who is arguably the biggest name. While it's unclear whether she will be a standard transfer or a graduate transfer, the former Columbia runner could make an instant impact for the Ducks as soon as this fall (assuming she's eligibile).
Patterson is currently listed at TSR #45 in The Stride Report's Preseason XC Top 50 Individual Rankings for this fall. After finishing runner-up at both the Penn State National Open and the Ivy League XC Championships, the newest Oregon talent finished 41st at the NCAA XC Championships.
She has also run excellent times of 9:02 (3k), 15:55 (5k) and 9:51 (steeple), qualifying for the 2023 outdoor national meet in the latter event.
The Oregon women are currently home to the best trio of collegiate milers in the nation as Izzy Thornton-Bott, Klaudia Kazmierska and Maddy Elmore all ran incredible times of 4:08 for 1500 meters this past spring. The Ducks are also expected to be one of the better cross country squads in the NCAA this fall.
But with Patterson now joining this team, and assuming that she'll be competing this fall, the Oregon women will now have another low-stick to pair with Thornton-Bott. Patterson's introduction to the program further fills out an Oregon lineup that was strong, but still developing and not expected to be crazy deep.