North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State To Host ACC Cross Country Championships Saturday
10/29/2009 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Atlantic Coast Conference kicks off the 2009 Fall Championship schedule on Saturday, October 31 with the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships held at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.
The men’s 8K race will start at 9:30 a.m., followed by women’s 6K competition at 10:30 am.
Sophomore Ryan Hill will lead the NC State men into action. Hill has two individual championships in three races this season. He finished first at the season-opening Wolfpack Invite on September 18, then won the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pa., on October 2. Hill finished ninth at the NCAA Pre-Nationals Blue Race two weeks ago in Terre Haute, Ind., and ran the 8K course at Indiana State faster than any other ACC runner in the day’s three men’s races. Hill has been named ACC Men’s Performer of the Week twice this season.
The NC State men will be aiming for their 15th ACC championship overall and their 11th in the last 15 years. John Martinez, the Wolfpack men’s lone senior, has been the team’s No. 2 runner all season. The remainder of the lineup will consist of junior Thomas Petersen; sophomores Bobby Moldovan, Andrew North, Greg Dame and Geoff King; and redshirt-freshmen Patrick Campbell and Brian Himelright.
The men’s competition will feature four teams that are currently ranked in the top 30 of the USTFCCCA poll. Virginia enters the championship as the highest ranked ACC team at No. 12 nationally, while Florida State is 21st, Duke 26th and NC State 30th. The Cavaliers are coming off a first-place finish at the Panorama Invitational two weeks ago. The Seminoles placed eighth in the White Division of the NCAA Pre-National Meet while the Wolfpack finished ninth in the Blue Division. The Blue Devils have two regular season team titles – JMU Invitational and the Great American Festival - to their credit.
“I feel good going into this race,” men’s head coach Rollie Geiger said. “We’ve run well in workouts the last two weeks and I think the guys are ready to go. I’m very confident that Ryan Hill and John Martinez will give us a good performance up front. The key will be to close the gap between those two and the next three or four guys in the lineup.”
The NC State women have won the ACC championship 21 times 31 years, with 10 runners winning the individual conference title. Senior Brittany Tinsley and sophomore Emily Pritt have been constants for the Pack. Tinsley won the Wolfpack Invite, with Pritt finishing third. Two weeks later at the Paul Short Run, Pritt and Tinsley finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Two weeks ago, Pritt finished 13th at the NCAA Pre-Nationals Blue Women’s race, with Tinsley finishing 47th.
Filling out the women’s lineup will be junior Kara McKenna; sophomores Lauren Bishop, Tiayonna Blackmon and Andie Cozzarelli; redshirt-freshman Leah Vaughn; and true freshmen Jordan Jenkins, Julia Kick, and Erin Mercer.
The women’s race will also feature four schools ranked in the top 30 of the USTFCCCA poll. Florida State enters the championship as the highest ranked ACC team at No. 6 nationally. The Seminoles are coming off a second-place finish in the Blue Division at the NCAA Pre-National Meet. Florida State is followed by Virginia 11th, Duke 16th and North Carolina 28th. The Tar Heels placed ninth in the White Division competition at the NCAA Pre-National Meet.
“I think we’re ready,” women’s head coach Laurie Henes said. “Our workouts have been good. The field is loaded so this will be a challenge. The women’s side of the conference seems to get stronger every year.”
A year ago, led by a pair of individual champions, the Virginia men and the Florida State women successfully defended their team titles at the conference’s championship meet in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Virginia’s Ryan Foster posted a first-place time of 24:27.7 on the 8K Ranson-Hamrick Course. Three other Cavaliers posted top-10 finishes as Virginia claimed its third ACC men’s title in four years and its fourth overall.
Foster delivered a strong kick at the finish to place ahead of Boston College’s Tim Ritchie (24:30) and Virginia Tech’s Devin Cornwall (24:30.8). NC State’s tandem of Bobby Mack (24:30.9) and John Martinez (24:33.8) rounded out the top five.
Virginia’s men tallied 40 team points to place ahead of second-place NC State (56), Virginia Tech (75) and Florida State (80).
Florida State’s Susan Kuijken, whose time of 20:11 in the women’s 6K race edged Virginia Tech’s Tas Fanning by six-tenths of a second, captured her second straight ACC title and keyed a dominating performance that saw the Seminoles place four runners among the top seven and five among the top nine.
Kuijken’s strong finish was good enough to narrowly edge Fanning, while North Carolina’s Brie Felnagle posted a third-place time of 20:23. FSU’s Lesley Van Miert (20:32) and North Carolina’s Lauren Holesh (20:36) completed the top five.
Florida State’s 27-point performance outdistanced second-place Boston College (106) and third-place Wake Forest (112).
