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Oct. 14, 2004
The men’s and women’s cross country teams at the University of Virginia will travel to Terre Haute, Indiana, this weekend (Oct. 16) to compete in the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet, hosted by Indiana State University. The meet will serve as a preview of the NCAA Championships course, which will host the national meet on November 22. The Virginia women, who are the top team in the “also receiving votes” category in the latest poll, will run at 11:00 am while the men follow at 12:50 pm.
The women are led by first-year Emily Harrison, who paced the Cavaliers at the Great American Cross Country Festival. She and captain Cheryl Carr have led the way for the Cavaliers all season, and this meet will serve as a great opportunity for Virginia to pick up key points to move the Hoos back into the rankings. Joining Harrison and Carr will be Shannon Hawrylo and Sara Ensrud, both of whom finished in the top 10 at the Lou Onesty Invitational held in Charlottesville earlier this year. Laura Hodges, who scored for the Cavaliers at the Great American Cross Country Festival, will also run this weekend. First-years Jen Dolson and Kristen Milot will also compete for the Cavaliers, as will second-year Kelly Swain.
“I think we are moving in the right direction,” said Virginia head coach Jason Dunn. “Our women are on the verge of being ranked, and this meet will provide us the chance to go mix it up with other teams.”
On the men’s side, All-Region performer Will Christian will look to lead the Cavaliers along with second-year Alex Tatu. Christian earned All-Region honors in 2003 while Tatu had a strong track season and was the individual champion at the William & Mary Open earlier this season. Transfer Soeren Lindner and fourth-year Ryan Neuhart will make their 2004 debuts at this race. Lindner had one of the fastest steeple times in the nation last year, while Neuhart scored at the conference meet in the steeple in the spring after being a part of the team that advanced to NCAA’s in cross country last year. Also back for the Cavaliers are Dave Vitto, one of the captains of this year’s squad. These five, along with Kevin McHale, Andrew Dumm, Jeff Eggleston, James Erickson, and Ryan Foster, will run the 8K course with an eye on helping the Cavaliers get back to the NCAA meet. Foster, Dumm, and Erickson have run in a tight group all year long, and that depth will help the Cavaliers pass some teams.