North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
NCAA Pre-Nationals
Hill and Hoer Pace Cross Country at NCAA Pre-Nationals
10/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 16, 2010
Click here for NCAA Pre-Nationals men's results
Click here for NCAA Pre-Nationals women's results
Ryan Hill and Laura Hoer posted impressive top-five finishes in the men’s and women’s races, respectively, to pace NC State at the NCAA Cross Country Pre-Nationals, held Saturday at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind.
The NCAA Pre-Nationals field is split into two races, white and blue, for both the men and women. NC State’s men and women both ran in the respective white races.
Paced by Hill’s runner-up finish, the NC State men finished fifth in the 8k men’s white race with 177 points. No. 16-ranked Oklahoma finished first with 106 points, edging 19th-ranked BYU (138) and No. 4 Colorado (140). Eighth-ranked Portland was fourth with 146 points.
The Wolfpack finished eighth in the 6k women’s white race with 341 points. Fifth-ranked Georgetown won the women’s white race with 100 points, thanks to three runners in the top 20. No. 9 Colorado was second (123 points), followed by No. 17 Stanford (125), No. 12 Stony Brook (216), No. 26 Minnesota (241), San Francisco (308), and No. 19 Michigan (311)
Hoer’s fourth-place finish in the women’s white race further validates her standing as one of the top runners in the country and perhaps the nation’s top freshman. Hoer previously picked up individual championships in the Wolfpack Invitational and Roy Griak Invitational.
Against a strong field at Pre-Nationals on Saturday, Hoer ran with the lead pack throughout the race and stuck with that group as others fell back. Lucy Van Dalen of Stony Brook pulled away in the final thousand meters to take first place, but Hoer hung with the front-runners to finish a strong fourth, 5.1 seconds off the lead. Her time of 20:13.2 would have been 11th at last year’s NCAA Championships, held on the same course.
Junior Andie Cozzarelli ran 37th for the Wolfpack at 21:08.0, and senior Kara McKenna (83rd at 21:43.7) and sophomore Erin Mercer (98th at 21:50.1) also had top-100 finishes for NC State.
Despite a strong performance from Hill, the men’s white race was no contest. Liberty’s Sam Chelanga, the defending national champion, was on pace to break his own course record, but coasted the final kilometer. He still cruised to victory by nearly 12 seconds over Hill, who took second at the wire by a second after a back-and-forth battle with Harvard’s Daniel Chenoweth over the final 1,000 meters. Hill’s final time was 23:31.7.
Redshirt-freshman Andrew Colley finished 16th individually at 24:06.3, followed by senior Sandy Roberts (35th at 24:22.8), sophomore Matt Sonnenfeldt (36th at 24:23.8) and sophomore Patrick Campbell (88th at 24:55.0).
On Friday, several NC State runners ran at the Blue Ridge Open in Boone, N.C. NC State did not compete as a team. Click here for results.
NC State will return to action in two weeks for the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, which will be hosted by Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
