Huskers On the Road to End Regular Season

Huskers On the Road to End Regular Season...
The Nebraska cross country team will be on the road for the second time this season when they travel to Terre Haute, Ind., for the Indiana State Pre-Nationals. The same site for the 2010 NCAA Championships, the meet is one of the premier meets of the regular season and is ran at LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course.
 
With 80 teams entered on the women’s side and 71 entered on the men’s side, each field will be broken up into two equally matched races, named the white and blue races.
 
The women will follow when they run in the first race (blue) at 11:00 a.m. The women will have it a tougher competition than last year with nine top-30 teams in their 39-team field. However, there will be four top-15 teams, including No. 3 Florida State, No.11 Iowa State, No. 13 Washington and No. 15 Princeton.

The Husker men will run in the first men’s race (blue), which is set to start at 12:10 p.m. (Eastern). The men will face their stiffest competition of the year as nine of the 35 teams in the race are ranked in the latest USTFCCCA poll, including No. 1 Stanford and No. 5 Northern Arizona.

Nebraska will also have athletes in both open races, with women’s race at 1:30 p.m. and the men’s race at 2:05 p.m.

Crofford Continues to Make Strides in 2010...
After staying in Nebraska for the first two meets of the 2010 cross country season, the Huskers traveled to Madison, Wis., on Saturday for the adidas Invitational at University Ridge Golf Course. Lara Crofford led the Husker women to an ninth-place showing with her 5th-place finish, while the men placed 15th behind David Adams’ 9th-place finish.

Entering the meet unranked in the latest USTFCCCA poll, the Husker women squared off against six nationally ranked teams, including top-20 schools Florida (No. 7), Syracuse (No.11) and Michigan State (No. 20). Crofford improved 14 places from her 2009 performance, placing fifth in the competition only seven seconds behind Florida’s No. 1 runner Charlotte Browning. The Huskers finished with 248 points, just two places behind No. 7 Florida who finished seventh. The women ran very well as a group, with redshirt freshman Martina Barinova finishing 30 seconds behind Crofford and placing 28th. The Huskers did take down one ranked team, as host school Wisconsin (No. 26) placed 15th out of 20 teams.

“The women ran well as a team,” Head Coach Jay Dirksen said. “Lara Crofford really looked awesome today, running against some of the best runners in the country. She managed the race extremely well and really showed her maturity as a runner today.”

On the men’s side, the Husker had quite a battle as there were seven nationally ranked teams in the 20-team field, including No. 6 host school Wisconsin, who finished second to No. 25th ranked Indiana. Adams, ran well once again as his time of 23:51.0 placed him inside the top ten runners.

“David (Adams) ran extremely well,” Dirksen said. “He made a great push at the end. He overtook at least 10 guys in the last half mile to put him in the top ten. As a team we’re making good progress.”

 “If we keep building on what we’ve got started, I think this could be a really solid year for both teams,” Dirksen said.

Crofford Makes History at Woody Greeno...
The Nebraska cross country teams put on an impressive show for the home crowd at Pioneers Park on Saturday Sept. 18, at the 21st Annual Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational. The Husker women won the university division team crown, while senior Lara Crofford won her second individual title.

The women’s victory marked the sixth straight year that the Huskers have taken the team title and the 16th time overall in the meet’s 21-year history.

Crofford became the first Husker to win back to back individual crowns since Fran ten Bensel (1990-92). A native of Newville, Pa., Crofford ran a time of 21:01.31, which marked her second individual title in 2010.

“Lara is running better than she has ever run, and the whole team did exceptionally well today,” Head Coach Jay Dirksen said.

David Adams was the men’s top finisher with a time of 24:54.1, finishing second behind Jim Walmsley of Air Force. Adams’ time of 24:29.4 is the sixth-best ever on the 8K course and the second-best time ever by a Husker, trailing Cleophas Boor’s time of 24:05.3 in 1996, which ranks third overall.

Overall for the women, Crofford led a 1-2 Husker finish with redshirt freshman Martina Barinova placing second. The Huskers placed four more in the top 15, with junior Erica Hamik finishing fifth, Ashley Miller coming in seventh, Jessica Furlan placing eighth and Jen Webers taking ninth. Freshman Sarah Plambeck just missed the top 15, placing 18th and running a time of 22:59.7. The team win was the Huskers’ sixth straight, their second-longest streak at the meet, as they won nine straight from 1990 to 1998.

After setting the longest winning streak in school history in 2009 with four team wins, the Husker men fell one point short of the 2010 team title. Adams led the Huskers by placing second, followed by Jesse Adams in eighth, Trevor Vidlak finished 10th, Todd Gulizia took 12th and Anthony Oberle placed 17th. The Husker men were runner-up to Wyoming, which finished with 33 points, while Nebraska had 34 points.

Huskers Dominant at Home...
Over the past 20 years the Nebraska men’s and women’s cross country teams have dominated the Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational, as the women have totaled 16 wins and the men have added another 11.

The women have put their wins together in bunches, as they have currently won the past six meets. The Huskers won the 2010 title behind individual winner Lara Crofford.

The Husker men set their longest streak in 2009 with four straight team titles. Following back-to-back wins in 1990-91, the Huskers then reeled off three straight wins from 1995 to 1997. Following a tie with Air Force in 1999, the Huskers won their seventh team crown in 2002, before beginning their win streak in 2006. Most recently the Huskers won the 2009 crown behind individual winner David Adams. The Husker men finished runner-up in 2010 behind Wyoming.

Adams and Crofford Receive Big 12 Honors…
David Adams (Nebraska) and Laura Tremblay (Colorado) have earned Big 12 Cross Country Runner of the Week honors. Adams becomes the first Husker to win the award since Marcus Witter in 2000. Tremblay earns her first individual honor and the first weekly award for the Colorado women this season.

Adams was the only Big 12 runner to crack the top 10 finishers at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational. He ran the 8K in a time of 23:51.0 for a ninth-place finish. Adams led his team to place 15th against seven nationally-ranked teams.

Nebraska’s Lara Crofford and Tom Farrell (Oklahoma State) have been named the first Big 12 Cross Country Runners of the Week of the 2010 season. It is the first conference weekly award for both student-athletes.

Crofford led the Huskers to a team title last weekend, as she captured her second career Creighton/UNO Classic individual title. She ran the 5K in a time of 18:11.42, which was 44 seconds faster than the second-place finisher. This is the first Big 12 Runner of the Week award for Nebraska since Kayte Tranel earned the honor in 2005.