North Carolina State University Athletics
Cross Country Readies For ACC Championships
10/26/2007 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
RALEIGH, N.C. The college cross country season hits the far turn and heads for the home stretch this weekend. For NC State, that means the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships at Panorama Farms in Charlottesville, Va.
Historically, NC State has dominated this race. The men have won 14 team championships, including 10 of the last 12. The women have 22 team championships in the 29 years that cross country has been recognized by the ACC as a championship sport. The Wolfpack women won 18 of 20 team championships from 1983-2002.
Together, the men and women have won dual ACC championships nine times in the last 16 years, including a year ago at Panorama Farms. NC State is the only school in the conference ever to win a dual men’s and women’s championship in cross country.
History is great, but the 2007 championships still is history to be written. For the Wolfpack, that means some stiff competition for both the men and the women.
NC State’s women have run strong at the front of all of its races this year, and has steadily narrowed the gap between its first three runners and its fourth and fifth. Senior Angelina Blackmon, junior Brittany Tinsley and sophomore Bona Jones were all-conference a year ago, and Jones earned All-America with her performance at the NCAA Championship.
Those three have performed more or less as expected this year. Behind them, freshman Colleen Wetherbee has steadily improved from week to week, and Marika Walker, another freshman, broke into the lineup at Pre-Nationals and was the Pack’s No. 5 runner, a second ahead of senior Anne Wheatly.
“Angelina, Britt and Bona give us a reliable 1-2-3 at the front of the pack,” women’s head coach Laurie Henes said. “Behind those three, we’ve shown improvement. Colleen Wetherbee ran pretty well at Pre-Nationals, but we need one more to step up for us.”
For the women, the competition will be strong and will come from multiple fronts. NC State enters the race ranked 23rd nationally, but the prohibitive favorite will be Florida State, ranked No. 3 and coming off a most impressive performance at the Pre-Nationals. The Seminoles and Wolfpack ran in the same race at Pre-Nationals and finished a relatively close second to top-ranked Stanford. The average time per runner for Florida State was nearly 30 seconds better than the average time for NC State.
If FSU wasn’t trouble enough, there is tightly bunched group of ACC teams ranked right behind the Wolfpack, with Virginia Tech at No. 25, Boston College at No. 28, and North Carolina at No. 32.
“The women’s side in this conference is just really loaded this year,” Henes said. “I don’t ever remember this many teams being this good at the same time. Florida State is really good, but Virginia Tech, BC and North Carolina have good teams as well.”
On the men’s side, NC State enters the race as the favorites, ranked No. 7 nationally and featuring a talented and tested lineup comprised mostly of fifth-year seniors. Seven of last year’s eight-man conference championship lineup is back, and four of this year’s five seniors Wesley Smith, John Crews, Chris Kollar and Stephen Furst already have been part of three conference championship teams.
Joining them in the lineup will be senior Tibor Vegh, juniors Gavin Coombs and Freddy Torres, and sophomore John Martinez. Smith, Crews, Furst, Vegh and Coombs were All-ACC a year ago.
“I feel good about this team heading into the weekend,” NC State men’s coach Rollie Geiger said. “We’ve run better as the year has gone on, and that’s what you always look for, improvement. This is a really talented cross country team and they’ve been through it before so they know what to expect. This race won’t be easy, however. Virginia has an excellent team and they’re at home, which is always a factor.”
The Cavaliers head into the ACC Championships ranked 11th in the latest national polls. At the NCAA Pre-Naitonals two weeks ago, NC State and Virginia ran in different races, but a comparison of the two teams’ times over the 8k course showed little difference between the two. NC State’s average time per runner was just three seconds better than Virginia’s.
