North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Cross Country Reaching High At NCAA Nationals
11/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
The NC State women enter the championship race ranked third nationally with one of the race’s individual favorites, senior Julia Lucas, leading the way. The men will line up Monday with a No. 7 national ranking thanks to a deep lineup that features nine runners who are virtually interchangeable.
The key for the women will be the gap between the lead runner, Lucas in four of five races so far, and the fifth runner. One through four, the Wolfpack has run as well as anyone in the country, with freshman Bona Jones, sophomore Brittany Tinsley and junior Angelina Blackmon all running strong races week in and week out. All four earned All-ACC honors and All-NCAA Southeast Regional honors the last three weeks.
If whoever runs fifth for the Wolfpack can hang near the front four runners, the Wolfpack can challenge Stanford and Arkansas for the team championship. Junior Ann Wheatley, sophomore Amy Kelly and freshman Kara McKenna round out the lineup behind the front four.
“The gap from one to five for us has been so large mainly because of Julia,” said associate head coach Laurie Henes, who coaches the NC State women. “She has run so fast up front that the gap has to be large. We’ve cut that gap from the start of the year to now. I believe that between Ann, Amy and Kara, we can keep that gap close enough to keep us in it.”
The NC State women have won two national championships, in 1979 and 1980. Three NC State women have combined to win five individual national championships – Julie Shea in 1979 and 1980, Betty Springs in 1981 and 1983, and Suzie Tuffey in 1985.
The NC State men don’t have an individual runner who stands out the way Lucas does, but head coach Rollie Geiger’s squad has unbelievable depth, with the gap from 1-7 usually between 30-45 seconds. And since a third-place finish at the NCAA Pre-Nationals five weeks ago, the Wolfpack has run as a group near the front of each race. The Pack’s eight entrants in the ACC Championships finished in the top 19, and the first six finished in the top 24 at the NCAA Southeast Regionals two weeks later.
The Wolfpack men have no established No. 1 runner. Bryce Ruiz has led two races, and Wes Smith, Tibor Vegh and John Crews have led one race apiece for the Pack. Stephen Furst, Fredy Torres, Chris Kollar and Gavin Coombs round out the NC State lineup. Ruiz is the team’s only senior. Coombs is a sophomore, the others all juniors.
Smith, Vegh, Crews, Furst, Coombs and Ruiz all earned all-conference honors. Ruiz, Kollar, Torres, Crews, Furst and Vegh made the All-Southeast Regional team.
“I’ve had some deep teams, but I don’t recall ever having a team with this much depth,” Geiger said. “And these guys all can really run, and there is no set pecking order. It seems like we have a different guy leading us each race. I’ve really enjoyed coaching this team. It’s been one of my favorite groups.”
The NCAA Championships begin Monday at noon with the 6k women’s race. The men’s 8k race will follow at 1 p.m.
