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Oct. 28, 2004
The Virginia men’s and women’s cross country teams travel to College Park, Md. to compete in the ACC Cross Country Championships this Saturday (Oct. 30). The event, which will be held at the University of Maryland Golf Course, gets started with the women’s race at 10:00 a.m., followed by the men’s race at 11:00 a.m. Both the Virginia men and the women are looking to pick up valuable points as they compete against some of the top teams in the nation while continuing to prepare for the NCAA postseason.
The men are led by Will Christian, who was third in last year’s meet and was Virginia’s first runner all season as the Cavaliers advanced to the NCAA Championships after a third place finish at ACCs in 2003. Christian has led the men again every meet this season and will look to earn All-Conference honors for a second consecutive year. Christian and Dave Vitto are the only two returners from last year’s team to compete this weekend, but the Cavalier lineup includes Alex Tatu, who ran one of Virginia’s top times in the 1500 on the track last spring and has had a solid cross country season in 2004, and transfers Soeren Lindner and Jeff Eggleston. Tatu and Eggleston both ran at the NCAA meet last year and bring valuable experience to the field.
The women are led by first-year Emily Harrison, who announced herself at Virginia’s opening home meet with a runner-up at the Lou Onesty Invitational in September. She has been Virginia’s top runner all season, and she is paired up front with Cavalier captain Cheryl Carr, who provides valuable NCAA experience. Carr, Shannon Hawrylo, and Angie Saterstad all ran at the ACC Championships in 2003 as the Cavaliers took sixth as a team.
“We will look to improve on our finishes from last year,” said head coach Jason Dunn. “We have a strong lineup, and we have competed against some of the top teams in the nation week-in and week-out, so this week will be no different as far as the strength of the field. We want to go in and mix it up and gain some points.”