Husker Runners Turn in Another Strong Effort

Chicago, Ill. --  The Nebraska women's cross country team, fueled by career-best times by all seven of its runners, continued its strong season, while the men continued to improve at the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational in Chicago, Ill., Saturday afternoon.

Junior Anne Shadle's second-place finish on the 5,000-meter course led the No. 30 NU women to a second-place team finish, one point behind 16th-ranked Wisconsin in the 17-team field. On the men's side, senior Dana Carne finished 12th overall, leading his team to a seventh-place finish on a day that saw six Husker men run career or season-best races.

Both the women and men competed in the Collegiate Division. The women's race featured 17 schools and 560 individual runners, while the men's race totaled 18 teams and 514 individual runners, as the men's team title going to the host school, Loyola.

Running on a 5,000-meter course, instead of the customary 6,000-meter distance, proved to be successful for several Huskers. All seven Husker women recorded career-bests for a 5,000-meter race, a distance that NU usually competes at one or two times a season. Shadle finished in 17:25, 1:10 faster than her previous best (18:35). Senior Ann Gaffigan's finishing time of 17:53 was one second faster than her previous best (17:54) and senior Kathryn Handrup's time of 17:37 bettered her previous time (17:57) by 20 seconds. Junior Kayte Tranel (17:54) knocked 1:25 off of her previous career best (19:19) and sophomore Michaela Lenihan (19:24) trimmed her previous best time (21:02) by 38 seconds. Redshirt freshmen Kim Pancoast and Lindsey Finkner also set career bests for a 5,000-meter race, in only their second race on a course of that distance. Pancoast's 18th-place time of 18:07 on Saturday was a whopping 2:55 better than her finish at last year's Avaya Classic (21:02), and Finkner's 19:20 finish was 1:06 faster than her finish at the season-opening time at the Creighton/UNO Invitational (20:26).

Besides the individual accolades, the Husker women ran extremely well as a team, with only 42 seconds separating the first and fifth NU runners to cross the finish line. Overall, only 16 places separated the Huskers' top five runners, with only six places separating the top four runners.

"The women ran really, really well," NU head coach Jay Dirksen said. "It's been a long time since we've had five girls run that fast and stay that close together."

After defeating two ranked teams at last weekend's prestigious Roy Griak Invitational, combined with the Huskers narrow loss to Wisconsin this weekend, NU's competitiveness against ranked schools is another aspect of the team that has Dirksen excited.

"I was really pleased with how they ran," Dirksen said. "They keep getting better and better. Wisconsin's a really good team and to be within one point of them is tremendous."

The men's race proved to be almost as monumental as the women's race as four Huskers set a new career-best time for an 8,000-meter race, sophomore Eric Dall tied his career-best time (26:10) set just last weekend and senior Paul Wilson recorded a season-best time of 25:52, 18 seconds better than his finish at the Roy Griak Invitational last weekend. Senior Dana Carne finished the course in 24:57, two seconds faster than his previous career-best time of 24:59 at the 2001 Roy Griak Invitational. The three freshmen on the men's side continued to impress, with Bryce Dickmeyer (26:44) shedding 27 seconds off of his previous best, Mike Dorazil (26:59) breaking his previous career best by 28 seconds and Alec Maduza (26:12) besting his previous best time by 23 seconds.

"Our men ran a lot better," Dirksen said. "We ran a much smarter race this weekend."

The Huskers will take next weekend off before returning to action Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Division I Cross Country Pre-National Meet in Waterloo, Iowa.

"The teams will get back to training," Dirksen said, referring to the off week. "We've ran well so far this season, but we still have a lot of things that we need to work on."