NU Women Take 8th at Roy Griak

St. Paul, Minn. - The Nebraska women’s cross country team had a very impressive showing at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday as it placed eighth out of 30 teams. The Husker men improved on last year’s placing by finishing 26th despite lacking a finish top runner Peter van der Westhuizen.

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For the second consecutive week, junior Channing Anseth and sophomore Ari Goldstein finished as the women’s top runners with Anseth in 34th (22:10.95) and Goldstein in 35th (22:14.10) against a field that included six teams that were nationally-ranked in the preseason polls. Of those, the Huskers defeated Marquette, who was ranked 18th nationally and finished 10th on Saturday.

 

“The course was a quagmire,” Head Coach Jay Dirksen said, after rain in <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>St. Paul on Friday. “We got off to a slow start, but the whole team gained a lot of spots during the race so I was very pleased. I was real proud of everyone because the whole team ran great. Channing and Ari ran very smart races. They ran like veterans today.”

 

The men suffered from the loss of junior captain van der Westhuizen, who was unable to finish after he lost his shoe which contained his finishing chip, but still saw vast improvements from last year’s meet as sophomore Brian Parr was the top finisher in 68th with a 8K time of 26:02.00. With van der Westhuizen injured last year at the 2005 Griak, the highest Husker to finish was 162nd.

 

“The men ran a lot better than we have at this meet the last two years,” Dirksen said. “We were solid today. Not great, but we’re definitely improving. We need a strong frontrunner like Peter to run really well at a meet like this, but Brian Parr stepped up and ran a very good race.”

 

The women had three runners place in the top 60 as junior co-captain Betsy Miller was 58th in a career-best 6K time of 22:41.20 and sophomore Natalja Zarcenko was four seconds back (22:45.45) in 64th. At last year’s Griak, Miller was 143rd and Zarcenko was 100th. Junior Joslyn Dalton (86th, 23:03.95), senior Kim Pancoast (87th, 23:04.85) and sophomore Jennifer Pancoast (88th, 23:07.15) rounded out the scoring Huskers.

 

Behind Parr, sophomore Kyle Custer finished 167th in 26:48.60. Custer finished as the men’s second runner or higher for the second time in his career. Junior Alec Maduza was 184th in 26:59.30 to help the Husker men finish ahead of Big 12 competitor KansasState, which was 30th in the team standings.

 

The Huskers look to continue strong seasons on both sides next week they head north again, this time to Brookings, S.D., for the South Dakota State Classic. The women will run a shorter distance, the 5K, for the second time this season at 9:45 a.m., with the men to follow with the 8K at 10:15 a.m.

 

Roy Griak Invitational
Sept. 23, 2006 -- Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Results
Les Bostad Golf Course ? St. Paul, Minn.

Women’s Team Scores
1. UC-Santa Barbara - 87
2. ArizonaState - 108
3. Baylor - 120
4. Minnesota - 137
5. MichiganState ? 143
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8. Nebraska - 251

Top Five Finishers, School ? Time
1. Stephanie Rothstein, UC-Santa Barbara ? 21:12.45
2. Lauren Christman, UC-Santa Barbara ? 21:12.95
3. Emily Brown, Minnesota ? 21:16.35
4. Alissa McKaig, Michigan State ? 21:18.10
5. Emily Harrison, Virginia ? 21:21.60

NU Finishers:
34. Channing Anseth, NU ? 22:10.95
35. Ari Goldstein, NU ? 22:14.10
58. Betsy Miller, NU ? 22:41.20
64. Natalja Zarcenko, NU ? 22:45.45
86. Joslyn Dalton, NU ? 23:03.95
87. Kim Pancoast, NU ? 23:04.85
88. Jennifer Pancoast, NU ? 23:07.15

173. Sara Prince, NU ? 24:13.70
231. Elizabeth Marsh, NU ? 25:06.65
247. Adrienne Parry, NU ? 25:26.70
264. Val Zajac, NU ? 25:54.60

Men’s Team Scores

1. Arizona - 142

2. Minnesota - 153

3. Virginia - 173

4. ArizonaState - 182

5. IowaState ? 207

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26. Nebraska - 770

 

Top Five Finishers, School ? Time

1. Josh McDougal, Liberty ? 24:14.05

2. Lopez Lomong, NorthernArizona ? 24:18.30

3. Aaron Aguayo, Arizona State ? 24:18.70

4. Robert Cheseret, Arizona ? 24:21.90

5. Obed Mutanya, Arizona ? 24:26.60

 

NU Finishers

72. Brian Parr, NU ? 26:02.00

167. Kyle Custer, NU ? 26:48.60

184. Alec Maduza, NU ? 26:59.30

226. Bryce Dickmeyer, NU ? 27:31.60

236. Vince Sickler, NU ? 27:39.85

239. Ethan Luebbe, NU ? 27:42.55

255. Bryce Somer, NU ? 28:02.45

 

295. Mackenzie Jeffrey, NU ? 29:34.50