SPRINGFIELD — In only his second race of the season, Oregon junior Galen Rupp stamped himself as a national title contender on Saturday with a dominant performance at the 2007 NCAA West Regional cross country championships.

Before a sun-splashed crowd of nearly 3,000 at Springfield Country Club, Rupp ran away with the individual crown by covering the soggy 10,000-meter course in a time of 29 minutes, 35.45 seconds.

His closest pursuer, University of Portland junior David Kinsella, was more than 10 seconds back at 29:45.70.

“I’m starting to come around,” said Rupp, who finished second at the Pac-10 meet in his season debut two weeks ago.

“The conference meet, obviously, was a little bit of a rust-buster for me, and I’m really happy where I’m at right now. The NCAAs are only a week away and things are looking good.”