Husker Women Win Regional Title

Stillwater, Okla. -- The Nebraska women’s cross country team won its first regional title since 1992, edging No. 20 Missouri, 60-63, to win the 24-team NCAA Midwest Championship, on Saturday, in Stillwater, Okla. Senior Ann Gaffigan covered the 6,000-meter course in 21:23 to finish second overall among 161 runners. Missouri’s Amanda Bales won the meet in a time of 21:18.

In the men’s race, senior Paul Wilson finished the 10,000-meter course in a time of 32:58 to finish 62nd out of 155 runners in leading Nebraska to an 18th-place finish in the 22-team field. Oklahoma State won the team title and the Cowboys’ Mindaugas Pukstas finished first overall in a time of 30:39.

In winning the fourth women’s regional title in school history, four Huskers were named to the All-Region team. Gaffigan, senior Kathryn Handrup (eighth place) and juniors Anne Shadle (11th) and Kayte Tranel (12th) earned All-Region honors by finishing in the top 25. Gaffigan and Handrup were honored for the fourth time in their careers, while Tranel was honored for the second straight season. The four selections ties the school record for most All-Region selections, which has been accomplished twice, most recently in 1999.

NU, which fell out of the FinishLynx poll this week, defeated Missouri for the first time in four tries this season. In doing so, Nebraska continued to run well as a team, with only 10 places separating the Huskers’ top four runners, and only 25 places separating the first team scorer from the final team scorer. NU finished with the second smallest time spread between scoring runners, as only 57 seconds separated Gaffigan, from the Huskers’ fifth runner, redshirt freshman Kim Pancoast who finished 27th in a time of 22:20.

Rounding out the NU runners were redshirt freshman Lindsey Finkner who recorded a season-best time of 22:54 in finishing 50th and freshman Farah Jadran who finished 99th in a time of 23:50.

Nebraska Head Coach Jay Dirksen was extremely pleased with how the women ran on Saturday.

"We had an outstanding meet," Dirksen said. "Going into the meet our goal was to finish in the top two, which I thought we should be able to do, but to win it was sweet, especially since it was against such a great team like Missouri. It’s really tremendous to have four runners in the top 12 and two in the top 10. This was our best race of the season so far."

By winning the championship, NU received an automatic berth to the NCAA Championship meet to be held Monday, Nov. 24, in Waterloo, Iowa. The Huskers have qualified for the championship meet 12 times.

Dirksen hopes the Huskers’ successful season will contine at the NCAA Championship.

"This race gives us good momentum heading into the NCAA Championship," Dirksen said. "Our goal was not just to make the NCAA Championship but to go there and perform well, which I think we will.

On the men’s side, sophomore Eric Dall finished in 67th place with a time of 33:04, just six seconds behind Wilson. Senior Dana Carne finished in 82nd place in a time of 33:25. The trio of Husker freshmen ended a good first year with Alec Maduza finishing 95th in a time of 33:43, Bryce Dickmeyer finishing 106th in 34:03 and Mike Dorazil finishing in 34:07 to finish in 109th place.

With the championship, the men end their season. Dirksen was pleased with the effort the team gave in their last race of the season.

"I really liked the attitude of the men today," Dirksen said. "Every one of them was into the race and went out with the idea of competing well and ran really hard. The good thing was they feel like they ended the season running much better."