Women Earn At-Large Bid to Nationals

Lincoln -- The Nebraska women's cross country team was informed Monday that they were selected as one of the 13 at-large teams to compete at the NCAA Championships in Bloomington, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 22. The women's race is scheduled for a 11:15 a.m. (CST) start and will be held at the Indiana University Golf Course.

Head Coach Jay Dirksen said he was not surprised the Huskers were chosen to compete, but he added that the team is not satisfied just to qualify for the event.

"Our goal this year was to get to the national meet and do better than we did last year," he said. "It's really tough to even get there, and we're not content just to qualify. I think realistically, we can place in the top 15 or 20."

Last year at nationals, Nebraska was led by Jeannette Zimmer, who finished 70th and helped the team to a 23rd-place finish overall. However, this year the Huskers will be without Zimmer, who is suffering from three stress fractures in her legs. Zimmer missed both the Big 12 Championships and the Midwest Regional Championships because of the injuries. Despite the absence of last year's top finisher, Dirksen said the team still expects to do well.

"(Zimmer) would obviously help us a lot," Dirksen said. "But we can't worry about what we don't have.

Senior Leadership
Seniors Michelle Brooks, NU's top runner this season, and captain Jaime Pauli bring strength and experience to the team and will be counted on to lead the squad.

Brooks, who hails from Preston, England, has been NU's top finisher in every race she's entered this season. In both the Big 12 Championships and the Midwest Regional Championships, Brooks placed seventh. Her finish at the conference meet earned her a place on the All-Big 12 team. She has four top 10 finishes on the season, including a season-best fifth-place finish in the Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational.

Pauli continues to lead by example as Nebraska's second-highest finisher behind Brooks. Pauli narrowly missed a top 10 finish at the regional meet on Nov. 13, where she finished 11th in 17:35. She will look to accent a great senior season with a strong finish at nationals.

In addition to Brooks and Pauli, NU will look to freshman Kathryn Handrup to turn in a strong performance. Despite her inexperience, Handrup has turned it on at the end of the season and has been Nebraska's third-best runner, placing 22nd and 23rd at the conference and regional championships respectively, finishing both races in 17:57.

Junior Jaimie Kruger, who ran under 18 minutes for the first time this season at the regional championships, will look to provide a spark. Kruger has made steady improvement this season and has been the fourth Husker to cross the finish line in each of the last two meets.

Leadership should also come from senior Melinda Oliver, who has three letters under her belt. Oliver ran the fastest race of her career in Savoy, Ill., site of the regional championships, and will look to cap her career with a strong race in Bloomington.

Amie Finkner and Mirjana Glisovic round out the team and will lend support to a strong Husker squad. Finkner finished 45th and Glisovic 53rd at the regional meet. Both have struggled a bit this year but have made strides near the end of the season.

Familiar Foes
The Huskers will see familiar faces in Bloomington. Already this year, NU has raced several of the 31 teams in the field. Nebraska has faced 14, or nearly half, of the schools invited to nationals and has twice competed against Minnesota and Big 12 opponent Kansas State, while Missouri and Nebraska have crossed paths three times this season. Of those 14 teams, Nebraska has beaten eight, including Minnesota. The Gophers topped the Huskers at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis on Sept. 25, but NU edged Minnesota at the Midwest Regionals last weekend. The Huskers faced Missouri at the Roy Griak Invitational in September, at the conference meet in October and at the regional championships this month, but have been unable to top the Tigers. Each time the two teams have met, it has been a tight race. The closest battle came in College Station, where Missouri nipped NU 119 to 121.

Great Lakes - (14) Michigan State and (4) Wisconsin
Mid-Atlantic - (6) Georgetown and (12) Villanova
Midwest - (9) Kansas State and (16) Missouri
Mountain - (2) Brigham Young and (5) Colorado
Northeast - (20) Brown and (13) Providence
South - Florida and South Florida
South Central - (3) Arkansas and (25) Texas
Southeast - (8) North Carolina and (11) North Carolina State
West - (1) Stanford and (7) Washington

The following are the 13 at-large teams, listed alphabetically (NU opponents in bold). Arizona, (10) Arizona State, Boston College, (23) Boston University, Bucknell, (21) Duke, (17) Michigan, (22) Minnesota, (19) Nebraska, (18) Northern Arizona, Notre Dame, (24) Oregon, (15) UCLA

FinishLynx Women's Cross Country Rankings

Rank/School	Points	Last Wk	Region
1. Stanford (12)	300	1	W
2. Brigham Young	283	3	MT
3. Arkansas	280	2	SC
4. Wisconsin	263	5	GL
5. Colorado	246	4	MT
6. Georgetown	232	6	MA
7. Washington	228	10	W
8. North Carolina	216	8	SE
9. Kansas State	209	7	MW
10. Arizona State	175	9	W
11. North Carolina State	173	11	SE
12. Villanova	172	22	MA
13. Providence	167	17	NE
14. Michigan State	128	19	GL
15. UCLA	124	14	W
16. Missouri	108	21	MW
17. Michigan	90	15	GL
18. Northern Arizona	76	20	MT
19. Nebraska	74	23	MW
20. Brown	71.5	--	NE
21. Duke	62	--	SE
22. Minnesota	53	16	MW
23. Boston University	42	18	NE
24. Oregon	40	25	W
25. Texas	31	--	SC

GL - Great Lakes, MA - Mid-Atlantic, MW - Midwest, MT - Mountain, NE - Northeast, SC- South Central, SE - Southeast, W - West