Adams, Crofford Lead Huskers to 24th Place Finishes

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 2010 NCAA Championships. With 151 teams competing, including seven of the top 15 nationally ranked men’s teams and eight of the top 15 women’s teams, the Huskers faced their stiffest competition of the year.

 

With 80 teams entered on the women’s side and 71 entered on the men’s side, each field was broken up into two equally matched races, named the white and blue races. The Huskers women were up first, running in the first women’s race, the blue race, at 11a.m., while the men’s squad ran in the first men’s race, the blue race, at 12:10 a.m.

 

After placing ninth last season, the Husker women faced stiff competition in nine ranked teams, but posted 24th-place finish out of 38 teams. The race included nine top-30 teams, including five top-15 teams in No. 3 Florida State, No. 6 Arizona, No. 11 Iowa State, No. 13 Washington and No. 15 Princeton. No. 3 Florida State came away with the win, followed by No. 6 Arizona.

 

Out of 261 runners, the Huskers had two women in the top 100, lead by senior Lara Crofford who finished 13th with a time of 20:39.0, improving on her 35th-place time of 21:22.5 from last season; Crofford was the second Big 12 runner to cross the finish line behind Iowa State's Aliphine Tuliamuk. Redshirt freshman Martina Barinova was the other Husker with a top-100 performance, placing 44th with a time of 21:08.1.

 

On the men’s side, junior David Adams continued to lead the team, as NU finished 24th out of 35 teams. The race was filled with talent, including No. 1-ranked Stanford, which won the race and swept the top three placings. The field also included top-15 teams Northern Arizona (No. 5), Princeton (No. 12) and Florida State (No. 15), who finished 4-5-3, respectively. Individually, Adams placed 26th out of 231 runners, clocking a time of 24:11.5 on the 8K course. Adams was followed by senior co-captian Anthony Oberle who finished 117th with a time of 25:03.1 improving on his 131st-place time of 25:28.7 from last season.

 

The Huskers will now be back in Lincoln to practice for two weeks before hitting the road for the conference championships in Stillwater, Okla. Last season, the Husker women finished fourth last year, Crofford lead the Huskers and placed 16th just missing out on becoming the first Husker in school history to earn three All-Big 12 honors in their career by one spot, as the top-15 finishers earn All-Big 12 honors.  On the men’s side, Adams finished 22nd to lead the men to a seventh-place finish.