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Oct. 18, 2005
Fresh off strong finishes at the NCAA Pre-National meet last weekend, the Virginia men’s and women’s cross country teams have both been ranked in the top-20 national polls. The men are 18th while the women are 19th, which represents the first time in school history that both programs have been in the top-20 at the same time. In addition, Virginia’s Jan Foerster was named the ACC Cross Country Performer of the Week after leading the Cavaliers to a sixth place finish, including upsetting four teams ranked ahead of UVa.
Foerster ran 24:23, taking 34th overall and leading a pack of five Virginia men separated by only 26 seconds. On the strength of the pack, the Cavaliers upset conference rival Florida State (then-#17) as well as then-#10 Cal Poly, #18 Ohio State, and #21 Indiana. The NCAA Pre-Nationals race was Foerster’s first race as a Cavalier harrier. He is the second Virginia men’s athlete to be named ACC Cross Country Performer of the week, as Soeren Lindner earned the honor on September 12.
With the #18 ranking, the Virginia men are the top-ranked men’s team in the ACC.
The women also moved up after upsetting then-#21 Butler en route to an eighth place finish at the Pre-Nationals meet. The Cavaliers have now defeated both #27 Butler and #28 Georgia this year. Virginia is led by Emily Harrison and Kara Scanlin, a pair of All-Regional performers who both made an immediate impact on the program in their first year. Both Harrison and Scanlin earned All-ACC and All-Regional honors in their respective first-years. The Cavaliers will train for the next couple of weeks leading up to the ACC meet on Oct. 31 in Tallahassee, FL.