Huskers Open Season at Creighton/UNO Classic

Huskers Open Season with Short Trip to Omaha... The Nebraska cross country team will open the 2010 season on Saturday, Sept. 4, at the Creighton/UNO Classic in Omaha, Neb., at Chili Greens.
The women’s team will look to take home the team title for the fifth straight year. The women will travel with an experienced team, including two seniors and four juniors.  Along with the upperclassmen is sophomore Blaire Dinsdale and newcomers Isabel Andrade, Samantha Morabe and Sarah Plambeck.
The Huskers will not be taking 2009 meet winner Erica Hamik and newcomer Martina Barinova.
For the Husker men, they will be traveling a young squad to the 2010 Creighton/UNO Classic.  The men will be traveling with one lone upperclassman in junior Jesse Adams, Adams will be accompanied by two sophomores and five freshmen.
The men’s top returner David Adams along with a majority of the returnees from the 2009 season will not be competing in the season opener in Omaha.  

Directions to Chili Greens...
From Lincoln, head East from on I-80 and take the 72nd St. exit. Next take a left on 72nd St. and make your way to Spring St. Turn right on Spring St. and follow it to 66th St. where you will see a white dome.

Dirksen’s take on 2010 Huskers
“I think that both these groups have really good chemistry.  They always try to do the right hting, they don’t take short cuts and they work extremly hard.  On the men’s side they think they can do pretty well. Nobody is going to do anything if they don’t think first that they can do something. This group is going to overachieve significantly. Nothing that they do will surprise me because of their attitudes and work ethic.”

“On the women’s side they have quite a bit of ability, everyone of our top five is a good level athlete.  They have enough experience, and we really think that Martina Barinova is going to be something special.  Lara Crofford has already proven herself, and we are looking for (Furlan) (Miller) and (Webers) to step-up in big ways this season.  The women’s potential is very exciting. They could be better than last years team but not do as well.”

“The Big 12 is one of those conferences that if you are in the top half you have an excpetional team.”

“The people on these teams are really fun to coach, and are really responsive to coaching.   On the women’s side we lost some really good runners but our core people that we are building around are as good as any team we have had in quite a few years. On the men’s side there is so much unknown and untapped ability that it will be exciting to see what they can produce this season.”

Women’s Preview
The 2010 season promises to be a very interesting and exciting year for the Cornhusker women.  NU features a great blend of experience, improving returnees, and talented but untested recruits.  After just missing an at-large invitation to the NCAA Championships, the motivation to return to the NCAA field should be extremely high.  The fourth-place finishes in both the Big 12 and NCAA Midwest Region Championships brought the season to a sour conclusion with everyone feeling that they were good enough to be competitive in the NCAA Championships.  That seems to have motivated the team to have a great summer of training and to expect more from themselves in 2010.

Lost to graduation were seniors Rachel Carrizales, Ari Goldstein and Elizabeth Marsh. Six returnees from the nine-member 2009 squad, led by senior Lara Crofford are a cause for great optimism.  Crofford qualified for the NCAA Championships for the third straight season in 2009, and she finished 113th.  She was the top Husker in the Big 12 (16th) and NCAA Midwest Region Championships (11th).

Junior co-captains Jessica Furlan and Ashley Miller are hoping for outstanding seasons this fall. Furlan was 31st in both the Big 12 and NCAA Midwest Region meets, while Miller rebounded from a 56th-place finish in the Big 12 to place a respectable 38th in the region.  Furlan redshirted in track due to a stress fracture but has come back strong.  Miller on the other hand had a great track season qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the mile, while just missing the 1,500 outdoors.  They will be joined by experienced senior Jen Weber and junior Erica Hamik, both of whom are veteran competitors with strong summer training bases.  Add in talented junior Katie White who has had an excellent pre-season of training. The Huskers have plenty of reasons for the optimism.

The new faces on the 2010 team include transfers Martina Barinova from the Czech Republic and Allison Eckert from the University of Colorado, as well as freshmen Isabel Andrade, Samantha Morabe, and Sarah Plambeck.  Barinova is expected to compliment Crofford at the front of the pack. Eckert was a member of the Buffs, 2007 top seven in most meets, but had a stress fracture in her back in the 2008 cross country season and then had reconstructive ankle surgery in the spring of 2009.  She is healed and her training is going well, but her readiness to compete again at a high level is still a question.  Andrade (Petaluma HS, Petaluma, Calif.) and Morabe (Great Oak HS, Temecula, Calif.) have run well in high school both in cross country and on the track and if they make a smooth transition to the college level could be factors rather quickly.  Plambeck was primarily a middle distance runner at Lincoln Christian HS but she has great potential and just needs more training and experience before she will be a major factor.

The Cornhuskers should once again be a strong contender for high finishes in their final season in the Big 12 Conference.  Iowa State is the probable favorite to win the conference title, several teams are in the running for high places, including Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Texas.  Most of the other schools will be more competitive than previous years, which could create one of the most competitive seasons in Big 12 history.  Iowa State, Minnesota and Illinois should be the top two teams in the NCAA Midwest Region.  Iowa, Kansas State, Kansas, and Oklahoma State should also have strong teams.  

Strong performances in inter-regional meets against other top teams in the country could be a deciding factor in advancement to the NCAA Championships again this season.  The Wisconsin Inter-Regional and the Indiana State Pre-National meets will provide the necessary competition against top teams from around the country.  This 2010 schedule will prepare them well for the championship phase of the season.  

Men’s Preview
A seventh-place finish at the 2009 Big 12 Championships and an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships were the best team places since 2002.  The 2010 Nebraska harriers expect to improve on those finishes.  Captains David Adams and Anthony Oberle are outstanding leaders for the 18 members of the team. Adams has been the top Cornhusker since his initial season as a redshirt freshman in 2007 and Oberle worked his way up the roster with great effort and determination. Both will provide solid examples of dedication and determination for a team with a good blend of veterans and promising newcomers.

Five returning letter winners form the nucleus of the 2010 team.  Adams was the Huskers, top finisher in every race except the season opener at the Creighton/Nebraska-Omaha Classic in 2009.  His 22nd-and 20th-place finishes, respectively in the Big 12 and NCAA Midwest Region Championships were the best individual performances by a Nebraska harrier since 2002.

Oberle along with seniors Brad Doering and Todd Gulizia traded positions as the Huskers 2-3-4 runners last year and all three are poised to major improvements this season.  Junior Jesse Adams, the team’s fifth runner in 2009, has been making nice improvements and appears ready for an outstanding season.

Behind the five letterwinners is a group of men who are capable of dramatically better performances this season.  This group included seniors Matt Conahan and Ethan Luebbe who are proven 800-1,500 runners who could make a significant contribution this fall.  Juniors Peter Falcon and Adam Mitteis seem to be improving, as are sophomores Tommy Brinn and Trevor Vidlak and redshirt freshman Brett Grieb.

Six new members of the cross country team include sophomore 800 meter specialist Dani Dapo, who will be in his first season of collegiate cross country.  Five true freshmen, all from Nebraska, include Alex Adams, Connor Gibson, Jarren Heng, Anthony Pittman and Parker Schoen.  Gibson and Adams were 1-2 in the 2009 Class B State Cross Country Championships, Heng won the Class C title in both 2008 and 2009, and Schoen was third in Class A after winning the 2008 individual title.  Pittman was the Class A runner-up in both 2008 and 2009.  All will be instrumental in the years to come for Cornhusker cross country.  If any of them can adjust rapidly to the college level running they can be contenders for the top seven spots on the team this year.

The 2010 schedule will provide plenty of intense competition to prepare for the Big 12 and NCAA Midwest Region Championships. Top competition in the Big 12 Conference will once again come from Colorado, Iowa State, Oklahoma and defending champion Oklahoma State.  At the NCAA Midwest Region Championship, look for defending champ Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Minnesota, and Oklahoma to battle for the two automatic qualifying spots.  Nebraska can certainly be counted as a team to move up again this season in both the Big 12 and NCAA Midwest Region Championships.