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Lead Stories: Saturday, November 22, 2008

McDougal Prevails Over Rupp at NCAA D-I Cross Country Championships

Posted November 19th, 2007 at 7:30 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Cross Country, College

The coaches’ pre-meet rankings held up as the top-ranked Oregon men and Stanford women won the team titles at today’s NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships at Terre Haute’s Laverne Gibson Championships Cross Country Course.

Liberty’s Josh McDougal took an exciting men’s race over a dry course with temperatures in the upper 50s.

Despite the near perfect racing conditions, the men’s race sent out slowly with nearly everyone still in contention through 3 km in 8:57, and the halfway point in 15:09.

“I wasn’t surprised that the race went out so slow,” said McDougal after the race. “Two years under nearly identical conditions, the race went out slow.”
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Kipyego Too Tough To Beat in Women’s NCAA XC Champs

Posted November 19th, 2007 at 6:00 PM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Cross Country, College

From gun to tape, the women’s division of today’s NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships had only one leader: Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech. The junior from Kenya ran away from the field to defend her individual title in 19:30.9 (unofficial) over the 6 km course in Terre Haute, Ind.

Last year, Kipyego sprinted to the fore at the gun and never looked back. However, Kipyego was content to run most of the first mile with a lead pack this year that included three others: Colorado’s Jenny Barringer, the 2006 runner-up, Florida State’s Susan Kuijken, and Iowa’s Diana Nukuri.

Kipyego started to edge ahead on a long downhill just past the mile passing the 2 km in 6:26. Barringer, Kuijken, and Nukuri were only a second behind at the split before the field made their way up the course’s second long incline.

From that point on, Kipyego simply extended her lead over the chase pack — passing 4 km in 13:01, 11 seconds ahead of Barringer, Kuijken, and Nukuri.
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NCAA D-I Cross Country Announces Championship Qualifiers

Posted November 12th, 2007 at 10:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results, Cross Country

The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Committee announced today the team and individual qualifiers for the 2007 Division I Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships.

In order to be eligible to participate in the championships, teams and individuals must qualify in their respective NCAA regions.

Thirty-one teams were selected to participate in each championship. The top two, seven-person teams automatically qualified from each of the nine regions, for a total of 18 teams. Thirteen additional teams were selected at-large.

Thirty-eight individuals, the first four athletes from each region who are not a part of a qualifying team and two additional qualifiers, were selected to participate in each championship. All individual qualifiers must finish in the top 25 in their region.
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Lehigh set to host the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional XC Champs on Saturday

Posted November 9th, 2007 at 9:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results, Cross Country, College

Lehigh will host the 2007 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Saturday morning on the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course. The Division I men’s 10K race will start at 11 a.m., followed by the Division I women’s 6K race at 12:15 p.m. Goodman Campus will also serve as host to the Division III Mideast Regional, with the women’s 6K race starting at 1:15, followed by the men’s 8K race at 2:15.

The Division I men’s race will feature 33 schools, including defending champion and nationally ranked Georgetown (No. 14) as well as Patriot League champion American and Paul Short winner Villanova. The Mountain Hawks will send eight runners to the course, led by freshman Dan McClimon and junior Dan DeWitt.

The women’s race will feature 33 schools, including defending champion and nationally ranked Princeton (No. 4), West Virginia (No. 14), Georgetown (No. 20) and Penn State (No. 28). The Princeton women are also the winners of this year’s Paul Short Run, finishing ahead of West Virginia. The Brown and White will send nine runners to the course, led by junior Shannon Alejandro, who was named to the All-Patriot League first team.

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Boston College to Host NCAA D-I Northeast Region Cross Country Championships

Posted November 9th, 2007 at 8:05 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Cross Country

The Boston College men’s and women’s cross country teams will play host to the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships held at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass., on Sat. Nov. 10.

The men, who are ranked 13th in the Northeast bracket, will start competition at 2:30 p.m. They will race amongst other top-ranked squads including Iona (1), Providence (2), Syracuse (3), Cornell (4) and Columbia (5).

The Eagles turned in a 10th place finish at last year’s regional championship. Senior captain Patrick Mellea ran the course in 31:36.8, qualifying him for the NCAA Championship.
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Wisconsin Badgers Capture Record Ninth-Straight Big Ten Cross Country Title

Posted October 29th, 2007 at 1:45 PM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Cross Country

The Wisconsin men’s cross country team had five runners finish in the the top-10 to score 33 points and win its ninth-consecutive Big Ten Conference title Sunday at the Ohio State University Golf Course in Columbus, Ohio.

With the win, the fifth-ranked Badgers set a new conference record for consecutive conference championships. UW also held the previous record of eight straight titles between 1985 and 1992. No. 22 Minnesota finished second with 65 points while Ohio State was third with 91 points.

Wisconsin was led by junior Matt Withrow (Tinley Park, Ill.), who took home the individual title by completing the 8,000-meter course in a time of 23 minutes, 44.37 seconds. He finished more than three seconds ahead of second-place finisher Hassan Mead of Minnesota. Fellow junior, Stu Eagon (Portland, Ore.), finished fifth in a time of 23:55.35. Both Withrow and Eagon earned first-team All-Big Ten honors.
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Oregon shoots for Pac-10 repeat on conference championship weekend

Posted October 23rd, 2007 at 12:15 PM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Cross Country

Top-ranked Oregon defends its title at the Pacific-10 Championships as other nationally ranked Division I teams also prepare for conference meets this weekend.

Oregon, the top-rated team in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll, will be challenged Saturday by eighth-ranked California, No. 14 Stanford, No. 19 UCLA and 25th-ranked Arizona State. The Pac-10 Championships will be held in Corvallis, Ore.
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Women’s D-I XC Teams Prepare for Conference Championships

Posted October 23rd, 2007 at 11:15 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Cross Country

Defending NCAA champion Stanford competes against three other teams ranked in the top 10 nationally at Saturday’s Pacific-10 Conference Cross Country Championships in Corvallis, Ore.

Starting Friday and continuing through Sunday, the top Division I women‚s teams compete in conference meets across the country. The Pac-10 and Big Ten conference meets each feature four teams ranked among the top 10 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Championships.

The Pac-10 Championships include top-ranked Stanford, No. 2 Oregon, fifth-ranked Arizona State and No. 9 Washington.

Friday’s Big Ten Championships in Columbus, Ohio, matches sixth-ranked Michigan, No. 7 Michigan State, eighth-ranked Minnesota and No. 10 Illinois.

The USTFCCCA Division I polls remain the same this week since there was limited competition nationally as most teams rested for the upcoming conference, regional and national championships. The NCAA Championships will be held Nov. 20 at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Course in Terre Haute
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Interview w/ Maryland’s 110m hurdler Dominic Berger

Posted October 8th, 2007 at 11:28 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Interviews

Maryland Terrapin Dominic Berger has a personal best time of 13.49 in his signature event, the 110hurdles, and his 13.54 was ranked 4th among D-I collegiates.

Q. Can you explain how you first got starting in the sport of running?
A. I was 3 years old and I asked my mom “can I play track” and I been running ever since.

Q. When did you first realize your running was some of the most elite in the country?
A. At the 2005 USA junior national championships where I won and first broke 14 seconds in the 110HH (13.85), and from then I had the confidence that I could run wit the best.

Q. What is your greatest accomplishment thus far?
A. Winning my first international title last summer 2006 at the NACAC Under-23 Championships in the Dominican Republic.

Q. What kind of awards/accomplishments/records would you like to have by the end of your career?
A. I would like to win a couple NCAA national titles and have few more records before I graduate, and then on the elite level I want to be an Olympic Champion that’s my ultimate goal.

To read the rest of this interview conducted by our friends at Joffroi Running, please CLICK HERE.

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Stanford #1 In 2007 Pre-Season Women’s Cross Country Rankings

Posted September 11th, 2007 at 7:34 PM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Cross Country

Two-time defending NCAA champion Stanford opens the 2007 cross country season ranked first in the country among Division I women’s teams, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced today.

Stanford received nine of the 13 first-place votes in the initial poll. Michigan is ranked second. Third-ranked Colorado received the remaining four first-place votes.

Rounding out the top 10 are No. 4 Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arizona State, Minnesota, Providence and Michigan State.

The second 10 consists of Virginia, Florida State, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina State, Princeton, Duke, Colorado State, Washington and Virginia Tech.
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