2008 Woodie Awards
Time to Regroup
Cross Country Teams Struggle in Nebraska; Strive to Improve
Anne Carlson
Issue date: 9/21/06 Section: Sports
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The meet comes just after the women won the college division and took 3rd overall, and the men's team placed 8th in the college division and 10th overall at the Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational Meet.
Head coach Kirk Pedersen said the course was a victim of inclement weather.
"It had rained Friday and a little more Friday night," Pedersen said. "It was 80 degrees by race time, if anything it was too hot, but not anything that we had a problem with."
The Jennies scored 77 points to win the women's college division. The squad scored 156 points to place 3rd overall behind Div. I schools Nebraska, 32 points and South Dakota State University, 71 points. The last time the team won the college division in this event was in 2001.
"We beat some good Div. I schools," Pedersen said.
The Jennies beat Div. I schools Creighton University and the University of Northern Colorado.
The top runners for the Jennies were Danielle Nagel, who took 5th in the college division, finishing the 6 km. course in 23:33.70, and 6th place finisher Sandy Davidson with a time of 23:35.65.
"Danielle and I ran pretty much the whole race together," Davidson said. "Then we finished together, and that was nice."
Other runners who paced for the Jennies were Dani Wagaman, 18th, 24:35.15, Gina Kennison, 19th, 24:37.20, Laura Adams, 29th, 24:56.85, Yazmin Vallejo, 42nd, 25:22.60 and Allison Kelly, 49th, 25:28.95.
"I don't think that I can pick out one runner who is racing any better than anyone else," Pedersen said.
Pedersen is more than satisfied with his team and is hoping winning this meet will give the increase the team's confidence for the rest of the season.
"They want to get better, and I'm very pleased with that," Pedersen said. "I feel good about where we are right now."
The men scored 222 points. to finish 8th in the college division and 289 points and placed 10th overall.
"This was a great race for Joe Mundt," Pedersen said. "This was probably one of the best races I've seen him run here. It was a quality field, and he stayed up there and battled with them."
Mundt was the top runner for the Mules. He finished the 8 km. course in a time of 26:41.10. Mundt placed 10th in the college division and 15th overall.
Other placers for the Mules were Adam Akers, 34th, 27:49.75, Anthony Schulz, 48th, 28:29.60, Chris Colesworthy, 59th, 28:38.35, Dennis Hill, 71st, 28:49.25, David Fuchs, 79th, 29:02.50 and Joe Nagel, 116th, 30:19.70.
"I think a lot of our sophomores, they continue to move up," Pedersen said. "They have made a lot of progress."
Pedersen added that lack of depth continues to be a problem.
"We have some quality people out there, and we need to get some better races out of them," Pederson said.
Akers said improvement will take time.
"I don't think we quite have our racing legs yet," Akers said.
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