Cavaliers Upset No. 10 Kansas, No. 20 Arizona State at Roy Griak Invitational

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Sept. 23, 2006

The Virginia men’s cross country team, ranked 26th in the preseason poll, upset No. 10 Kansas and No. 20 Arizona State en route to a third-place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis today (Sept 23). The Cavaliers used their trademarked disciplined pack running to take three spots in the top 21, all within a 14-second span, to give themselves a leg up and then their fourth and fifth runners finished in six seconds of each other to take third after being seeded sixth. The women, led by Emily Harrison’s fifth place individual finish, took sixth overall.

Virginia’s Jan Foerster (14th, 25:00) and Andrew Dumm (17th, 25:06) finished within six seconds of each other and Andy Biladeau (21st, 25:14) came in eight seconds later as the Cavaliers were the first school with three across the line. Taylor Smith, Andrew Jesien, and Kevin McHale all finished in a seven-second span to close as Virginia’s 4-5-6 runners, helping the Cavaliers nip No. 20 Arizona State 173-182. Virginia finished third of 34 teams overall.

Harrison’s fifth place overall finish led a strong Cavaliers 1-2-3 punch as Kara Scanlin (17th. 21:51) and Katie Read (21st, 21:58) helped Virginia become the second school in the meet to have three runners across. The Cavaliers finished sixth of 30 teams.

The Cavaliers return to action as some members of the squads will compete at the Tribe Inter-regional Challenge next Saturday (Sept 30) in Williamsburg. Following that competition Virginia will travel to Terre Haute, Indiana to compete in the Pre-Nationals meet on the course at Indiana State, the site of the 2006 NCAA Championships.

Women's results (team rankings in parentheses):1. UC Santa Barbara, 872. Arizona State (9), 1083. Baylor (13), 1204. Minnesota (16), 1375. Michigan State (23), 1436. VIRGINIA (26), 1587. Butler, 2058. Nebraska, 251

Individual UVA runners:5. Emily Harrison, 21:2217. Kara Scanlin, 21:5121. Katie Read, 21:5842. Laura Hodges, 22:2973. Lauretta Dezubay, 23:01111. Sara Casscells, 23:36118. Jen Dolson, 23:44

Men’s results (team rankings in parentheses)1. Arizona (8), 1422. Minnesota (23), 1533. VIRGINIA (26), 1734. Arizona State (20), 1825. Iowa State (UR), 2076. Butler (29), 2337. Princeton (UR), 2598. Missouri (UR), 2819. Kansas (10), 29410. Michigan State (28), 29511. Northern Arizona (UR), 299

Individual UVA results14. Jan Foerster, 25:0017. Andrew Dumm, 25:0621. Andy Biladeau, 25:1457. Taylor Smith, 25:5564. Andrew Jesien, 26:0166. Kevin McHale, 26:02144. Alec Lorenzoni, 26:45