Huskers at Pre-National Meet this Weekend

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. and 12:20 p.m., respectively. 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, a Gold and a Purple division. The men's race will feature 74 total teams, while the women's race will total 72 teams. Both the Husker men and women will compete in the Purple races.

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 in the Purple race, in alphabetical order (with rankings in parenthesis) are: Baylor (14th), BYU (1st), Michigan (22nd), Northern Arizona (16th), Notre Dame (5th), Princeton (23rd), Toledo (30th) and William & Mary (24th).

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.

In the men's race, a total of 24 ranked teams in the Oct. 7 MONDO Men's Cross Country poll will race at the meet. The teams scheduled to run in the Purple race, in alphabetical order (with rankings in parenthesis) are: Cal-Poly (25th), Central Michigan (6th), Indiana (24th), Iona (10th), Michigan (12th), Ohio State (11th), Portland (21st), Stanford (1st), Texas A&M (27th), Villanova (19th), Virginia (15th) and Washington State (28th).

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.

Dirksen hopes that the training the teams did during 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."

Following this weekend's race, NU will be off next weekend before returning to competition Friday, Oct. 31 at the Big 12 Championships in Spicewood, Texas.