NU Men and Women to Face 42 Ranked Teams

Lincoln -- The Nebraska men's and women's cross country teams will compete at the Division I Cross Country Pre-National Meet in Waterloo, Iowa, Sat., Oct. 18, at 11 a.m.

The Pre-National Meet gives teams a chance to run on the course where the NCAA Championships will be held in November. The opportunity to test the women's 6,000-meter course and the men's 8,000-meter course has attracted some of the top teams in the nation.
 
'This meet will be the best meet of the year, other than nationals,' said NU Head Coach Jay Dirksen. 'It will be a very, very competitive race.'

Due to the size of the meet, both the men's and women's races will consist of two divisions. The men's race will feature 74 teams, while the women's race will total 72 teams.
 
On the women's side, the 25th-ranked Huskers will compete against some of the top teams in the nation. The meet features 18 teams ranked in the Oct. 13 FinishLynx Cross Country poll. In addition, six teams also receiving votes will run this weekend.

Women's ranked teams scheduled to compete this weekend, in alphabetical order (rankings in parenthesis) are: Baylor (14th), BYU (1st),  Colorado (7th), Florida State (29th), Michigan (22nd), Missouri (21st), North Carolina State (6th), Northern Arizona (16th), Notre Dame (5th), Princeton (23rd), Stanford (2nd), Toledo (30th), UCLA (12th), Villanova (13th), Wake Forest (15th), West Virginia (27th), William & Mary (24th) and Wisconsin (17th).

In the men's race, a total of 24 ranked teams and 11 teams also receiving votes in the Oct. 7 MONDO  Men's Cross Country poll will race at the meet. The teams scheduled to appear, in alphabetical order (with rankings in parenthesis) are: Air Force (receiving five votes), Arizona (20th), Ball State, Baylor, BYU (4th), Bucknell, Butler (26th), California, Cal-Poly (25th), Central Michigan (6th), Colorado (5th), Georgia (17th), Georgetown (14th), Indiana (24th), Iona (10th),  La Salle (30th), Michigan (12th),  North Carolina State (22nd), Northern Arizona (3rd), Notre Dame (16th), Ohio State (11th), Oregon (7th), Portland (21st), Stanford (1st), Texas A&M (27th), Villanova (19th), Virginia (15th), Washington State (28th) and William & Mary (23rd).
 
Dirksen hopes that the training the teams did during last the off week will pay off this weekend.

'We did really well in practice,' Dirksen said. 'It was nice to just get out and run and the teams really responded to it.'

NU Sets Travel Roster
Injuries and sickness caused Husker Head Coach Jay Dirksen to make some changes to  this weeken'ds travel roster.
 
Running in the women's 6,000-meter race will be seniors Ann Gaffigan and Kathryn Handrup, juniors Anne Shadle and Kayte Tranel,  sophomore Michaela Lenihan and redshirt freshmen Kim Pancoast  and Lindsey Finkner.
 
Running in the men's 8,000-meter race for NU are seniors Dana Carne  and Paul Wilson,  sophomore Eric Dall and freshmen Mike Dorazil, Bryce Dickmeyer and Alec Maduza.
 
Injury and sickness will keep freshman Farah Jadran and junior Tim Williams from competiting for the women's and men's teams, respectively, this weekend.

Midseason Recap
NU has competed in four of its scheduled eight cross country meets. After this weekend's Pre-National Meet, only the Big 12 Championships, the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships and the NCAA Championships remain.
 
The 2003 season is at its relative midpoint, prompting a look back at the first four meets of the season.
 
In the Huskers' first meet of the season, both the men and women earned team titles at the Creighton/UNO Invitational. NU senior Ann Gaffigan finished first in the women's race, while senior Dana Carne earned first place in the men's race 
 
Nebraska was in Lincoln next for its only home meet of the season. At the Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational, junior Anne Shadle's first-place performance led the women to their second consecutive team title. The Husker men finished second to Air Force at the invite, led by Carne's 10th-place finish.
 
For the third meet of the season, NU headed north for the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational.  The women finished 12th in the race, which featured 13 ranked teams and one team receiving votes. Shadle again led the Huskers by finishing 20th. On the men's side, Carne's 79th-place finish led Nebraska to a 29th-place team finish in a race that totaled nine ranked teams and four teams receiving votes.
 
NU last competed at the Sean Earl Lakefront Classic in Chicago, Ill. The Husker women, having entered the rankings for the first time at No. 30, finished second, falling to 16th-ranked Wisconsin by one point. Shadle again led Nebraska, finishing second on the 6,000-meter course. The men showed continued improvement, finishing seventh, led by Carne's 12th-place finish.
 
Heading into this weekend's Pre-National Meet, head coach Jay Dirksen is pleased with how his teams have progressed from the pre season up to this point in the season.
 
'Both teams have competed hard all season,' Dirksen said.
 
'The women have been doing great. Before the season I thought that they would be pretty good and they have not disappointed.'

The Husker men had an early season blow dealt to them, as seniors Eric Rasmussen and Kyle Doperalski were forced to redshirt.
 
Losing two of the top three runners has made things difficult for the men, Dirksen said.
 
'We weren't counting on redshirting Rasmussen and Doperalski,' Dirksen said. 'But our freshmen have stepped up and keep getting better and better. Last weekend was our best weekend of the season so far.'

Looking Ahead
The Nebraska men's and women's cross country teams will be off the weekend of Oct. 25, before returning to action at the Big 12 Cross Country Championships in Spicewood, Texas, Nov. 15.
 
The men's 8,000-meter race will begin at 9 a.m., followed by the women's 6,000-meter race at 10 a.m.
 
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 a year ago.

NU Women Ranked
The Nebraska women's cross country team dropped one spot to No. 25 in the latest FinishLynx Women's Cross Country poll, released Oct. 13, despite not competing last weekend.
 
The Huskers will have an opportunity to move up in the polls this weekend, when they travel to Waterloo, Iowa to compete at the NCAA Division I Pre-National Meet.  The race will feature 18 ranked team and several teams also receiving votes.