Huskers Finish 30th at NCAA Championships

Waterloo, Iowa - In its first team appearance since 1999, the Nebraska women’s cross country totaled 593 points to finish 30th at the NCAA Championships on Monday, Nov. 24, in Waterloo, Iowa. Senior Ann Gaffigan was the top NU runner, covering the 6,000-meter course in 21:04 to finish in 71st place out of 252 runners. Stanford won the team title with 120 points, while North Carolina’s Shalane Flanagan won the individual title in a time of 19:30. Nebraska finished fourth out of five Big 12 teams in the 31-team field.

In the men’s championships, Stanford completed a sweep of the team titles by scoring a miniscule 24 points. Colorado’s Dathan Ritzenhein won the individual title, covering the 10,000-meter course in 29:14.

Nebraska Head Coach Jay Dirksen, who was named the 2003 Midwest Region Women’s Coach of the Year on Monday, was pleased with how his team performed.

"I’m proud of the team and really competed hard," Dirksen said. "Overall, I thought they did very well."

The Huskers entered the meet with little experience running in the NCAA Championships. Seniors Gaffigan and Kathryn Handrup were the only Huskers who had competed in the championships before. Gaffigan improved upon her 98th-place finish in 2001, while Handrup finished 114th at this year’s race after finishing 137th at the championships in 1999.

While NU may not have had many runners with championship-level experience, it did have experience on the 6,000-meter Waterloo course. Nebraska competed in the pre-national race held at the same course in October that featured many of the same teams. At the championships Monday, Gaffigan, Handrup, junior Anne Shadle and redshirt freshman Lindsey Finkner all ran faster times than they had at the pre-national meet.

Shadle finished 135th in a time of 21:28, 11 seconds faster than her time at the pre-national race. Shadle’s finish is even more impressive considering Dirksen didn’t really expect her to run since she had been ill all weekend.

"Anne had to go to the hospital on Saturday and didn’t leave her room all weekend," Dirksen said. "It didn’t look like she was going to run, but she really toughed it out and ran well, despite the circumstances."

The Huskers again ran well as a team. Only 24 seconds separated Shadle from Gaffigan and only 1:16 separated the five scoring runners. Junior Kayte Tranel was Nebraska’s fourth runner, finishing 197th in a time of 22:01. Redshirt freshman Kim Pancoast rounded out the team score, finishing 225th in a time of 22:20. Finkner also competed, covering the course in 23:24 to finish 250th.

Dirksen was encouraged by the team’s performance and thinks it will serve as a solid foundation for next season.

"This was a great end to our season," Dirksen said. "We were able to compete against the top teams and now we’ve got experience. We’ve got good returning runners and good recruits coming in to keep the team going strong next season."

As for Gaffigan and Handrup, Monday’s race marked the last of their Husker careers.

"Ann and Kathryn have been great runners for us," Dirksen said. "Both ran really well today and their experience showed. They’ve worked hard and have had successful careers."