Huskers Off This Weekend

The Nebraska men's and women's cross country teams will not be in action this weekend, after a seventh- and second-place finish, respectively, at last weekend's Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational in Chicago, Ill.

The Huskers will look to take advantage of this break in competition.

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

Nebraska will return to competition on Saturday, Oct. 18 at the Division I Pre-National Meet in Waterloo, Iowa. The Pre-National Meet gives the Huskers a chance to run on the same course that will host the NCAA Championships Nov. 24. The meet annually draws some of the top teams in the nation and should serve as a great tune-up before the Big 12 Championships Oct. 31.

NU Women Move Up in Poll
The Husker women moved up six spots to No. 24 in this week's FinishLynx Cross Country poll, released Monday, Oct. 6.

Entering last weekend's Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational, the Huskers had cracked the poll for the first time this season at No. 30. The Huskers competed against 16th-ranked Wisconsin at the invitational, finishing second to the Badgers by a single point (31-32). This narrow defeat came on the heels of NU's impressive performance at the Roy Griak Invitational on Sept. 27. At the meet, then-unranked Nebraska finished two spots ahead 14th-ranked Boston College and No. 21 Indiana.

The Huskers' success against some elite teams has head coach Jay Dirksen excited about the team's prospects for the remainder of the season.

"I was really pleased with how the women ran (last weekend)," Dirksen said. "They keep getting better and better. Wisconsin is a really good team and to be within one point of them is tremendous."

Nebraska Ranked In Regional Poll
Nebraska is ranked No. 12 in the Sept. 29 Midwest Region poll.

The Midwest Region poll is designed to rate the overall ability of both the men's and women's cross country teams at a particular school that is designated to be within the Midwest Region.

The poll is useful because the Huskers will only compete against schools in the Midwest Region at the NCAA Regional Championships Nov. 15, the race that determines which schools will move on to the NCAA Championships, Nov. 24.

Looking Ahead
Following the Division I Pre-National Meet in two weeks, NU will take another week off before competing in the Big 12 Cross Country Championships Nov. 15, in Spicewood, Texas.

The Big 12 has announced a time change for the 2003 Cross Country Big 12 Championships. The date of the meet, Friday, Oct. 31, will remain the same, however, both the men's and the women's races will begin one hour earlier.

The men's 8,000-meter race will now begin at 9 a.m., followed by the women's 6,000-meter race at 10 a.m. The meet will still be held in Spicewood, Texas, hosted by Texas.

At the championships, the men will be looking to better last year's seventh-place team finish, while the women will look to improve upon an 11th-place finish from last season's race.

Career Day for 12 Huskers
Both NU's men's and women's cross country teams were fueled by the career-best times set by 12 Huskers at last weekend's Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational.

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 that competed in the race recorded career-best times for a 5,000-meter race, a distance that NU usually competes at one or two times a season.

Junior Anne Shadle finished in 17:25, 1:10 faster than her previous best time of 18:35. Senior Ann Gaffigan's finishing time of 17:53 was one second faster than her previous best of 17:54 and senior Kathryn Handrup's time of 17:37 bettered her previous time of 17:57 by 20 seconds. Junior Kayte Tranel's 17:54 finish knocked 1:25 off of her 19:19 previous career best and sophomore Michaela Lenihan finished in a time of 19:24, trimming 38 seconds from her previous best time of 21:02. 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 21:02 finish at last year's Avaya Classic, and Finkner's time of 19:20 was 1:06 faster than her finish at the season-opening Creighton/UNO Invitational, where she finished in 20:26.

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 of 26:10 set just last weekend and senior Paul Wilson recorded a season-best time of 25:52, 18 seconds better than his 25:34 finishing time at the Roy Griak Invitational last weekend.

Senior Dana Carne finished the Lakefront 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 members of the team continued to impress, with Bryce Dickmeyer's time of 26:44 shedding 27 seconds off of his previous best, Mike Dorazil breaking his previous career best of 27:27 by 28 seconds with a 26:49 finish and Alec Maduza crossing the tape in 26:12, besting his previous best time of 26:35 by 23 seconds.

Huskers Fare Well in Chicago
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, which featured 17 schools and 560 individual runners in the women's race, and 18 teams and 514 individual runners in the men's race, which saw the host school Loyola earn the team title.

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."

In the men's race, the Huskers stayed close to one another with their top four finishers each finishing in the top 40, and their second-fourth individuals finishing within eight places of each other.

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