Huskers Host Woody Greeno

Lincoln - The Nebraska men's and women's cross country teams hit the course at Pioneers Park on Saturday for their lone home event of the season at the annual Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational. The Huskers will co-host the meet with Nebraska Wesleyan.

The women's 6k race opens the competition at 10 a.m., followed by the men's 8k event. More than 50 men’s and women’s teams will compete with more than 600 student-athletes participating.

Nebraska Head Coach David Harris is confident in the Huskers heading into their lone home meet of the season, as he hopes for a repeat victory for the men’s team even though the team is a little beat up.

“I hope out men can defend our championship we won last year, we are not going to be at full strength at the meet, so hopefully our depth can take over on the men’s side.

Harris expects a few freshman runners will contribute on the men’s team.

“I think it is now time for some of our depth to step up. Some of the freshmen that we have are going to have a chance to be in our top five pretty much every meet this year,” Harris said. “It is hard to count on freshmen but we are going to do that.”

A runner to look out for according to Harris is sophomore Joe Harter. The Millard West graduate placed seventh in the 8k competition last season, with a time of 25:43.60.

“Joe is going to lead our team, I have a great deal of faith in him to do so. He will get us out there, can he replace Trevor Vidlak as a fifth-year senior? I don’t know," Harris said. "Trevor finished second so we are going to try and defend.”

On the women’s side, NU is hoping to improve on its fourth-place finish a season ago. Leading the way for the women will be sophomore Anna Peer of Bettendorf, Iowa. Peer, who missed the Woody Greeno last season due to illness, placed second at Nebraska’s season opening meet at the Augustana Twilight.

“We will have Anna Peer to lead the women’s team, again I have all the faith in her, as she will get our team out there in the front and be able to hold on,” Harris said. “She will be able to score a very low score in this meet after not competing last year due to illness.”

Huskers Counting on Seniors to Provide Leadership at Home Meet

Harris made special note about the five seniors who will be competing for the Huskers at the Woody Greeno this weekend.

On the men’s side, Harris hopes Connor Gibson will improve on his eighth-place finish in last year's race, after he missed all of the 2012 season due to an injury.

“We really need a big meet from our seniors, on the men’s side Connor Gibson who we are counting on in our top five, Sidney Madlock and Alney Tobias,” he said. “I don’t expect Madlock and Tobias to be top-five runners, but we need them to run well for our depth.”

For the women, Omaha native Jessica Wright and Californian Shawnice Williams will make up the senior duo representing the Huskers.

“This will be Jessica Wright and Shawnice Williams last chances to race at home during their college careers as well,” he said. “Shawnice is really being counted on - on our team, and we hope Jessica can get back into where she was at one time in the program. She has just had a series of injuries.”