Adams, Carrizales Lead Huskers at Pre-Nationals

Terre Haute, Ind. – With the Big 12 Championships just two weeks away, the Nebraska cross country team wrapped up the regular season on Saturday at the Indiana State Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind., the host site of the 2009 NCAA Championships. With 147 teams competing, including eight of the top 10 nationally ranked men’s teams and seven of the top 10 women’s teams, the Huskers faced their stiffest competition of the year.

 

With 72 teams entered on the women’s side and 70 entered on the men’s side, each field was broken up into two equally matched races, named the white and blue races. The Huskers men were up first, running in the second men’s race, the white race, at 10:40 a.m., while the women’s squad ran in the first women’s race, the blue race, at 11:20 a.m.

 

After placing ninth last season, the Husker women slipped two spots, but still posted a respectable 11th-place finish out of 37 teams. The race included seven top-30 teams, including four top-15 teams in No. 4 Oregon, No. 6 Stanford, No. 11 Florida State and No. 13 Georgetown. No. 19 Colorado came away with the win, led by race winner, Jenny Barringer.

 

Out of 249 runners, the Huskers had four women in the top 100, lead by senior Rachel Carrizales who finished 23rd with a time of 21:11.2, improving on her 50th-place time of 21:21.2 from last season. Lara Crofford (35th – 21:22.5), Ari Goldstein (62nd – 21:46.5) and Jessica Furlan (99th – 22:04.08) were the other Huskers with top-100 performances.

 

On the men’s side, sophomore David Adams continued to lead the team, as NU finished 24th out of 35 teams. It was good improvement for the young Husker men as they finished 33rd in last season’s blue race. The race was filled with talent, including No. 1-ranked Stanford, which won the race. The field also included top-10 teams Colorado (No. 4), BYU (No. 6) and Portland (No. 8), who finished 2-3-4, respectively.

 

Individually, Adams placed 21st out of 237 runners, clocking a time of 24:09.2 on the 8K course, drastically improving his 88th-place time of 24:49.3 from last season. Adams was right in the thick of things as he was only 12 seconds off placing in the top 10. Brad Doering also posted a top-100 finish for the Huskers. After finishing 194th last season with a time of 25:41.3, Doering, a junior from Yuba City, Calif., finished 96th at 25:02.9.

 

The Huskers will now be back in Lincoln to practice for two weeks before hitting the road for the conference championships in Columbia, Mo. Last season, the Husker women finished third for the third consecutive year, with Crofford and Carrizales each earning All-Big 12 honors, marking Crofford’s second straight award. On the men’s side, Adams finished 26th to lead the men to a seventh-place finish, their top finish since 2002, when they also placed seventh.