2001 Women's Cross Country Season in Review

The 2001 Nebraska women's cross country season provided a striking contrast to the men's season. In a year in which the men boasted one of their deepest teams in recent memory, the women's squad struggled to field seven healthy runners. The Husker women started the season with just nine runners, only five of which had any extensive experience at the Division I level. But what the Huskers lacked in experience, they made up for in hard work.

Sophomore Ann Gaffigan, arguably one of the hardest workers on the team, emerged as a leader in just her second season in the scarlet and cream. A two-time All-Midwest Region performer, she added All-Big 12 honors to her resume with her seventh-place showing at the conference meet. Gaffigan became just the third Husker, joining Michelle Brooks and Amy Wiseman, to earn all-conference honors since the Big 12's inception in 1996.

In addition, Gaffigan's sixth-place finish at the regional meet was the best showing by a Husker in five years. She also became the first Husker since Christina Blackmer in 1995 to qualify for the NCAA Championships as an individual.

Gaffigan assembled one of the best sophomore seasons in recent memory. A tough runner, she seemed at her best when it mattered most.

"She's a big-meet runner," Coach Jay Dirksen said. "She knows how to run in big meets. She's smart and knows how to do it when it counts."

Junior Kathryn Handrup, who was slowed early in the season with stress fractures, also produced a memorable season. Despite missing several weeks of summer training, Handrup was able to get a solid base under her as the season progressed.

"She had an outstanding performance at the conference meet, and ran quite well at the regional meet," Dirksen said. "She just kept getting better as the season progressed."

The lone senior on the squad, Jenna Lucas was often Nebraska's third runner. A veteran of three conference championships and a solid contributor, Lucas produced some of her best performances late in the season.

Junior college transfer Monica Barger and freshmen Anne Shadle and Michele Steube struggled at times with the demands of collegiate running.

An All-American at Colby Community College, Barger learned early in the year the differences between junior college and Division I racing. The adjustment from high school to college also proved difficult at first for both Shadle and Steube.

Prior to her arrival at Nebraska, Shadle had never run a 5,000-meter race in cross country and the transition proved difficult.

"She got a lot of experience and had her eyes opened to what it's really like at this level," Dirksen said. "She didn't understand how tough it was going to be and what you had to do to get ready for it."

Steube may have had an even larger hurdle to overcome. Not only did she have to adjust to the increased mileage in college, but she hadn't run competitively in nearly three years.

Despite the growing pains, all three improved throughout the season and along with junior Melissa Drozda and sophomores Hillary Laird and Morgan Hartman, provided depth and gained valuable experience for the future.

Nebraska's season started at the Bearcat Distance Classic on Sept. 1, where the newest Huskers were eased into collegiate competition with the 4,000-meter race in Maryville, Mo. Hartman, slowed by an injury her freshman season, paced the Huskers with her seventh-place finish.

Two weeks later, Nebraska was set to officially kick off its season at the Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational at Pioneers Park on Sept. 15, but the events of Sept. 11 postponed the team's debut. Although they didn't compete in Nebraska uniforms, several Huskers did run unattached.

Gaffigan offered a glimpse of what was to come by winning the Woody Greeno individual title. With the victory, she joined three-time All-American Fran ten Bensel as the only NU runners to win the women's race as collegians with collegiate eligibility remaining.

After competing in a few smaller meets, the Huskers traveled to St. Paul, Minn., for the Roy Griak Invitational, where they would have the chance to measure themselves against some of the top teams in the country. The meet featured 12 teams ranked in the top 25, including eventual national team champion Arizona State.

Behind strong performances from Gaffigan and Handrup, Nebraska finished in a tie for 26th with Indiana. Gaffigan's 28th-place finish was a dramatic improvement over her 2000 showing, while Handrup turned in a solid performance in just her second race of the season.

Although 20 seconds were all that separated Nebraska's third through sixth runners, the group finished too far back in the pack to move Nebraska into the top 20. The large gap between NU's top two runners and the rest of the Huskers would continue to plague Nebraska throughout the season.

Following a strong showing by Nebraska's newcomers at the Briar Cliff Invitational on Oct. 6, Nebraska shifted its focus to the Furman Invitational in Greenville, S.C., a precursor to the national meet.

Given a taste of what the national championships could be like, Gaffigan turned in her best performance of the season with a 20th-place finish in the ?Silver' race. Her finish helped the Huskers complete the meet tied for 23rd with Baylor.

At the Big 12 Championships in Norman, Okla., on Oct. 27, the Huskers finished ninth, despite turning in what Dirksen believed was the best team effort of the season.

"I was kind of surprised we weren't higher," Dirksen said. "But that just shows how tough this conference is."

Gaffigan secured all-conference honors with her seventh-place showing, while Handrup turned in her best performance of the season, finishing 16th and earning the highest conference finish of her career.

For the final meet of the season, the NCAA Midwest Regional in Carbondale, Ill., Nebraska set the goal of finishing in the top 10. A much-improved team from the beginning of the season to the end, Nebraska met its objective with a 10th-place showing. Although Nebraska's finish wouldn't advance it to the national meet, Gaffigan's sixth-place finish in what Dirksen described as "the best race of her life" was enough to earn one of two individual at-large bids to the NCAA Championships.

The meet also marked the final collegiate competition for Lucas. Nebraska's most improved runner in 1998 and 2000, Lucas, who hails from Rapid City, S.D., capped her cross country career with a 55th-place finish at the regional meet.

The first Nebraska runner since Nora Shepard in 1995 to earn all-conference honors as a sophomore, Gaffigan knew she could qualify for the national meet.

"Midway through the season I started expecting myself to make it," she said. "I felt like I had the ability to make it, I just had to put in the effort."

As the women's lone representative, Gaffigan was the first Husker to qualify as an individual for the national meet in six years. Battling a chest cold, she finished the 6,000-meter course in 22:08 to place 98th overall.

"To be in the top 100 is pretty good the first time you come here," Dirksen said. "I think this will really motivate her to come back next year. She is certainly capable of being an All-American at Nebraska."