Huskers Travel to Brookings for SDSU Classic

For the second consecutive year the Nebraska men’s and women’s cross country teams will travel to Brookings, S.D., for the South Dakota State Classic on Saturday, Sept. 30.

 

Formerly the South Dakota State Invitational, this year’s meet consists of the women’s 5K at 9:45 a.m., and the men’s 8K at 10:15 a.m.

 

The Husker women hope to continue one of their strongest runs in recent history. They won two meet titles this season (Creighton/UNO Classic and Woody Greeno) before placing eighth out of 30 teams at the Roy Griak Invitational last Saturday. The 2005 meet in Brookings turned out to be one of the most successful of the year for the women, as their runner-up finish was one of five meets in 2005 that they placed in the top-five.

 

It will be a challenge to match that performance this weekend, as junior Channing Anseth will not run for the Huskers after running hard the last two weeks in a row. Nebraska’s goals remain intact, however, as it will focus to close the gap on the Minnesota women, who will be the meet-favorite this Saturday. The Golden Gophers were fourth at the Griak Invite last week and are ranked 19th in the USTFCCCA poll after finishing ninth at the 2005 NCAA Championships. They won the 2005 South Dakota State Invitational team title by 26 points over Nebraska.

 

“Without Channing it will be a real challenge to get closer than we did to Minnesota last week,” Head Coach Jay Dirksen said. “But I am very pleased with the progress of our women to this point and I am looking forward to their continued development.”      

 

Junior Peter van der Westhuizen led all Husker men’s runners at the 2005 South Dakota State Invite with a third-place finish in the 8K to push NU to an eighth-place team finish. The Huskers look for another strong run from van der Westhuizen in hopes of cracking the top five after he was unable to finish the meet last week in St. Paul.

 

“This meet should be a good one for our men,” Dirksen said. “I thought that we did not compete particularly well last week, although some of the men ran pretty well. This meet is much smaller and we should not get swallowed up in a huge field and lose track of where we are as a team like we did last week at the Griak Invite. I think we will be much more competitive this week as a team and the overall quality and size of this meet should be a better situation for our men.”

 

The Huskers will take a week off next weekend before returning to action at the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Ark., on Oct. 14.

  

Notes:

-The host South Dakota State Jackrabbits competed at the Roy Griak Invitational last week. The SDSU women finished 19th and the men were 33rd.

 

-This weekend will mark the last time this season that the Husker women will run the 5K distance.

 

Parr Fills Shoes

For the second consecutive year, men’s leading runner Peter van der Weshuizen was unable to finish the race at the Roy Griak Invitational. Last year, when van der Westhizen suffered from compartment syndrome, the men’s next top runner did not come in until 162nd place. This year, when van der Weshuizen lost his shoe which had his finishing chip on it, sophomore Brian Parr finished as the men’s leading runner in 66th place, a far improvement from 2005.

 

Parr’s finish was not only 110 spots higher than his finish at the 2005 Griak, but it also helped the men finish 26th overall out of 34 teams. It was the second time in the last four meets that Parr was the men’s top runner.

 

Last Year: Husker Women Finish Runner-Up at SDSU Invitational

The Nebraska women placed three runners in the top 10 for the third time during the 2005 season to take home a runner-up finish, while the men continued to see improvement with a seventh-place team showing at the South Dakota State Invitational on Oct. 1, 2005.

 

Peter van der Westhuizen ran a career-best 8K time of 25:19 to lead all Nebraska runners with a third-place individual finish in the men’s race.

 

The South African was followed by co-captain Bryce Dickmeyer in 31st (26:59) and the duo of Kyle Custer (35th, 27:07) and Brian Parr (36th, 27:09). Custer’s performance was a career best. Co-captain Aaron Nasers suffered from sickness to finish 54th (27:55).

 

“Peter ran the best he has in his life for that distance (8K),” Head Coach Jay Dirksen said. “He was having some struggles with an injury, but he hung in there today. Kyle Custer also ran his best race since he began college. Overall, the men did a good job, but they can still run a lot better.”

 

The women’s trio of captain Kayte Tranel (fourth, 17:42), captain Kim Pancoast (ninth, 18:03) and Ari Goldstein (10th, 18:06) also ran career-best times as the NU women were defeated only by 11th-ranked Minnesota in the team standings.

 

“We made a big step forward today as a team,” Dirksen said. “Each of our women’s runners competed better than they have all year, and some for their entire careers.”

 

Freshman Natalja Zarcenko made it four top 15 finishers for the women with a 14th-place finish in a career-best time of 18:37. In all, seven Nebraska runners enjoyed career-best performances.

 

Review: Huskers Women Place Eighth at Roy Griak Invitational

The Nebraska women’s cross country team had a very impressive showing at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational last 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 from top runner Peter van der Westhuizen.

 

For the second consecutive week, 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,” Dirksen said, referring to a sloppy course by rain 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 really 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 van der Westhuizen, who was unable to finish after he lost his shoe that 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 finisher 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, 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.

 

20 Questions with Brian Parr:

1. First of all, how do you think the season is going through the first month?

“I think the season is going really good. Individually, I’m running a lot better than last year, but I think my best race is to come. As a team, we’re better but we haven’t shown it yet. We haven’t had everyone come together in a meet yet.”

 

2. You made some pretty big improvements since last year. What do you attribute that to?

“Coming in from high school I had a frustrating senior year, so I didn’t do much over the summer training-wise. I didn’t train as I had been the previous summers. So after having a tough cross country season and redshirting indoor and outdoor track, I was like ?I don’t want this to happen again.’ I got back to what I did in high school and it’s starting pay off again.”

 

3. Do you have any personal goals for your sophomore season?

“I guess at the Big 12 meet I would like to be in top 25. And for regionals I would like to be top 20. If I do that I think I have a legitimate shot at making nationals, because we have such a tough regional and they take more individual runners. Last year 20th place qualified for nationals.”

 

4. What did you do this past summer?

“For training this summer I ran about 80 miles a week. That was the main thing I did. I went back home (to Fremont) and hung out at the lake, swam a lot and did some boating. That was pretty much consistent of my whole summer.”

 

5. What was it like running at a school like Fremont with great track and cross country tradition, and how does that help you today?

“We have a great head coach for our cross country team (Sean McMahon). He helps prepare you for the next level and prepares you well for it. Also he doesn’t train you to your maximum potential in high school. He trains you hard but also leaves room for improvement so each year in college you can improve and not get maxed out when you get to college. Some kids train so hard in high school and it’s not as fun in college. They’re running the same times and it’s probably kind of frustrating. He did a good job getting me to where I am now.”

 

6. What was the recruiting process like for you, and what other schools did you look at?

“Other colleges I looked at were Kansas, Missouri, Drake, IowaState and Nebraska. That’s pretty much it. I had others who talked to me like Minnesota, but I was kind set on Nebraska. I guess I wanted to leave my door open to see what others had to say.”

 

7. Academicaly, can you talk about your pre-business major?.

“I was in nutrition and dietetics and then I switched over. Science wasn’t my favorite area. I just figured that someday I might want to open my own business or something. It seems like it’s suiting me a lot better this year than nutrition and dietetics did last year.”

 

8. What’s the best part about the University of Nebraska?

“I would say the facilities. We have some of the best in the country. If you have a problem or something, they take care of you. It’s nice to know that if you’re injured they will get you back to your full potential or full strength.”

 

9. What can you say about the academics at Nebraska?

“The academic support is good. It’s nice and a great advantage of being an athlete because you have a tutor to help you out. As an athlete, you can get behind because we miss classes sometimes, but it’s nice to have them to help out when that happens.”

 

10. Where do you wish to be in 10 years?

“Maybe living outside of Nebraska. I wouldn’t mind traveling and working for a big business, going to meetings and selling products for a company ? just working in the business world. If not that, probably owning my own business.”

 

11. What’s your favorite food?

“I would have to say ice cream.”

 

12. Favorite T.V. show?

“King of Queens.”

 

13. Favorite movie?

“American Wedding.”

 

14. Favorite pro sports team?

“The New York Yankees.”

 

15. Do you play Xbox, PS2 or neither?

“Xbox.”

 

16. Why Xbox?

“That’s all my roommates and I do is play NCAA Football 07 on Xbox. That’s all we do. It’s kind of ridiculous. We’re obsessed.”

 

17. What do you like to do in your free time?

“I guess playing NCAA Football 07 would be it. Just sit back, relax and play some NCAA Football 07.”

 

18. Do you have a favorite book?

“Running with the Buffaloes.”

 

19. What was your first memory of the Huskers growing up?

“The 1995 Husker football team.”

 

20. When you’re on a 10-mile run, what do you think about?

“On a 10-mile run, you can pretty much figure out and think about your whole day. Some people sit there and think about their problems. When I’m out there I just like to situate stuff and think about how I’m going to figure out things.”