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Oct. 14, 2005
The Virginia men’s and women’s cross country teams return to the competition course this weekend as they travel to Terre Haute, IN to compete in the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet on Saturday, Oct. 15. The men, who are currently ranked #29 nationally, will face ten teams ranked ahead of them in the men’s blue race while the #22 women will take on 11 ranked teams, including eight in in the top 21.
The women are led by USA team member Emily Harrison, who is coming off of one of the finest first-year campaigns in school history. An NCAA qualifier in her first year as as a collegiate harrier, Harrison has led the Cavaliers in every race of her carer, including the first two in 2005. She is joined by two All-Region performers in Shannon Hawrylo and Kara Scanlin, giving the Cavaliers a tough 1-2-3 punch out of the gates. Adding first-year Lauretta Dezubay, who has scored for the Cavaliers in both meets of 2005, and veterans Suzanne Ginnow, Katie Read, and Kristin Milot give Virginia impressive depth as they look to gain valuable points for the post-season.
On the men’s side, NCAA qualifier Soeren Lindner is back for Virginia, along with ACC-runner up Ryan Foster. Virginia’s top miler Alex Tatu and ACC scorer Andrew Dumm both add impressive depth to Virginia’s squad, as does first-year Andy Biladeau, who was the Cavaliers’ first man at the Great American XC Festival.
“We are looking forward to getting back to racing this weekend after three great weeks of training,” said head coach Jason Dunn. “The Pre-NCAA meet provides a great opportunity for each of our teams to take a big step towards achieving our seasonal goals.”
The men’s blue race is at 11:00 am while the women’s blue race takes place at 12:20. The men will face #4 BYU, #5 Stanford, #10 Cal Poly, #12 Georgetown, #18 Ohio State, #21 Indiana, #22 Dartmouth, #28 Kansas, as well as conference rivals #17 Florida State and #23 N. C. State, among others. The women will see #3 Stanford, #4 BYU, #8 Notre Dame, #9 N. C. State, #10 Minnesota, #13 Columbia, #19 Georgetown, #21 Butler, #24 Northern Arizona, #27 Wisconsin and #28 Georgia, who Virginia beat at the Great American XC Festival.