The Oregon State cross country team will compete at the Pacific-10 Conference meet on Friday at the Sky Links Country Club in Long Beach, Calif.

The 6,000-meter race begins at 4 p.m.; the course is three 2,000-meter loops over flat grass terrain.

Four top-20 teams are in the 10-team field: No. 1 Washington, the defending meet and NCAA champion; No. 8 Oregon; No. 12 Stanford, and No. 17 Arizona.

OSU's nine runners are juniors Abby Chesimet, Jennifer Macias and Hannah Soza-Hodgkinson, who have competed in past Pac-10 championships.

The other six runners, sophomore Laura Carlyle; redshirt freshmen Natosha Buruse and Olivia Poblacion, and true freshmen Sabrina Lopez, Sandra Martinez and Ashley Mayfield will be first-time Pac-10 meet participants.

"This will definitely be one of the youngest groups to compete there in a long time," OSU coach Kelly Sullivan said.

"The conference's depth is better than it has been since we started the program with all 10 programs going in, doing so with a lot of high expectations.

"I know the women are excited to go. We have great leadership from Jen Macias, Abby Chesimet and Hannah.

"They lead by example every day, and I know they're excited for this to be 'their team.' "

The Beavers were sixth at the 2008 meet, their highest finish since the program was reinstated for the 2004 season. Junior Casey Masterson, who is redshirting this season, was OSU's top placer in that race, as she placed 28th in 21:02.01.

Basketball poll

Stanford was the unanimous pick by the media to win the Pacific-10 Conference women's basketball championship. The Cardinal had 21 first-place votes.

Arizona State was picked second, followed by California, UCLA, USC, Oregon State, Washington State, Oregon, Arizona and Washington.

The preseason all-star team was Jayne Appel of Stanford, Alexis Gray-Lawson of Califirnia, Doreena Campbell of UCLA, Ify Ibekwe of Arizona and Jeanette Pohlen of Stanford.

OSU opens the exhibition season at 7 p.m. Monday against Concordia at Gill Coliseum. The season opener is Nov. 13 aganst Cal Poly, also at home.