Huskers Travel to Waco for Big 12 Championships

Head Coach Jay Dirksen will take his men’s and women’s cross country teams to Waco, Texas, this Friday for the 2005 Big 12 Cross Country Championships.

Following an impressive year in which the men saw noticeable improvment and the women tally two team titles and a runner-up finish, the Husker runners will look to earn their highest Big 12 finishes since both squads nabbed upper-half placings during the 1999 season.

Action will take place at Bear Run Cross Country Course with the men’s 8K starting at 10 a.m., followed by the women’s 6K at 11 a.m.

The Huskers have seemed to peak at the right time as they enjoyed what Dirksen called "their best performances of the year" in their last meet on Oct. 15 at the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Ark.

The women placed fifth overall and defeated three conference foes (Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Kansas State), while the men finished ahead of Big 12 schools Kansas State and Baylor. NU hopes to improve on last year’s Big 12 Championships results, when the women placed ninth and the men finished 12th.

Senior Kayte Tranel and sophomore Peter van der Westhuizen have led their respective sides throughout the season.

Tranel, who redshirted last season, has been the women’s highest finisher in four of five races this season. She set a career-best 5K time of 17:42 at the South Dakota State Invitational and a career-best 6K time of 21:12 at the Chile Pepper Festival. Tranel also took first in the Creighton/UNO Classic to begin the year, and has placed in the top 10 in three of five races this season.

A native of South Africa, van der Westhuizen has led the men’s team the entire year. He made a name for himself early this season with his individual victory at the Creighton/UNO Classic, before going on to run one of the best 10K times in recent Nebraska history
(30:00) at the Chile Pepper Festival. The sophomore has placed in the top 10 three times this year.

Scouting the Big 12

The University of Colorado swept the conference crowns last year, and has their men’s team ranked third and women 10th in the latest MONDO and FinishLynx polls.

The CU women are ahead of only one other conference team in the national polls, No. 15 Oklahoma State, while Texas (No. 12), Kansas (No. 13) and Oklahoma State (No. 25) are all ranked on the men’s side.

Coach Dirksen’s Thoughts on the Big 12 Championships

"We have an opportunity to show how much we have improved since last year," Dirksen said. "Last year, it was not an acceptable year for either team, and our goal this year is to get the women back into the top half of the conference and for the men to get out of the cellar. Although we are very young on both teams, these are achievable goals. We showed tremendous improvement on Oct. 15 at the Chile Pepper Festival and we want to build on that. The success of each team will depend upon all the top five scorers having consistent performances, rather than the individual success of any one athlete. We have several individuals who should finish well, but it will take five scorers to meet our team goals."

Review: Huskers Run Well at Chile Pepper Festival

Fayetteville, Ark. - Against some of the toughest competition in the nation, the Nebraska men’s and women’s cross country teams ran their best races of the year on Oct. 15 at the Chile Pepper Festival.

Led by senior tri-captain Kayte Tranel, the Husker women placed fifth in the team standings with 220 points. NU trailed only No. 16 Oklahoma State, No. 12 Arkansas, No. 14 Baylor and Wichita State, while defeating conference foes Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Kansas State.

Tranel placed 17th overall in a career-best 6K time of 21:12, and was followed by freshman Ari Goldstein in 32nd place (21:40). Sophomore Channing Anseth, who was running in her first meet of the year, finished 44th (21:58).

Senior Kim Pancoast placed 59th in a time of 22:19, and freshman Nataja Zarcenko slipped to 93rd (22:56) after suffering an injury during the race.

On the men’s side, sophomore Peter van der Westhuizen ran one of the best 10K races in recent Nebraska history with a time of 30:00 to finish 28th overall.

His effort led the men’s team to a 16th-place finish out of 35 teams with 449 points. The Huskers edged out Big 12 opponents Kansas State and Baylor.

Junior co-captain Bryce Dickmeyer nearly cracked the top 100 with his 103rd-place finish in a career-best time of 32:06, while another Fremont native, Brian Parr, was 108th (32:09). 

Up Next:

NU will attempt to qualify runners for the national meet in two weeks at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships Nov. 12 in Iowa City, Iowa.

The meet will be held at the University of Iowa Cross Country Course with the men’s 10K starting at 11 a.m., followed by the women’s 6K at Noon.