North Carolina State University Athletics
Cross Country Prepares for ACC Championships on Saturday
10/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 28, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. — Winning Atlantic Coast Conference championships in cross country has been a specialty for NC State over the years, and the Wolfpack will look to continue its longstanding tradition of excellence in the sport on Saturday at the ACC Championships at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass.
The women’s race will begin at 10 a.m., followed by the men at 11 a.m.
The field for both races should be as stacked as at any time in the history of the conference, with five ranked teams in the men’s race and six in the women’s.
NC State is the defending men’s champion and is ranked No. 16 in the latest national rankings by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). The Wolfpack may not be the favorite, however, at least if the polls are to be believed. Florida State currently sports a No. 8 ranking, and Duke (14), Virginia (19) and North Carolina (25) all are ranked.
On the women’s side, defending champion Florida State is ranked No. 3 nationally and is the favorite. Duke checks in at No. 12, with No. 17 North Carolina, No. 24 Virginia, No. 25 Boston College and No. 28 NC State all in the latest national rankings.
Men’s Team Looking For a Repeat
Favorite or not, the NC State men will line up a deep and talented team this weekend. The Wolfpack is paced by 2009 All-American Ryan Hill, a junior who finished second in the white race at the NCAA Pre-Nationals two weeks ago and is one of the favorites to win the men’s individual championship.
Redshirt-freshman Andrew Colley has been the Pack’s No. 2 runner all season. He has a pair of top-10 finishes to his credit, and ran 16th at the NCAA Pre-Nationals. Redshirt-senior Sandy Roberts and sophomore Matt Sonnenfeldt have been in the lead group for NC State all season. Roberts won the season-opening Wolfpack Invitational and had top-40 finishes at both the Roy Griak Invitational on Sept. 25 and the NCAA Pre-Nationals. Sonnenfeldt was 20th at Roy Griak and was exactly one second behind Roberts at Pre-Nationals.
In redshirt-junior Bobby Moldovan and redshirt-sophomore Patrick Campbell, the Wolfpack has a pair of proven performers. Campbell was an All-ACC runner as a freshman a year ago, while Moldovan was All-NCAA Southeast Regional.
Then there’s the experienced threesome of juniors Andrew North and Geoff King, and sophomore Brian Himelright. All have experience at the ACC Championships.
That’s a strong lineup, and head coach Rollie Geiger is looking for contributions from everyone in order for his team to reach its goals.
“I think that to be successful, it’s about everybody doing their part,” Geiger said. “Your sixth and seventh guys have to help you win, not just your first five. Everybody has a role on this team, and each and every guy in that lineup has to fulfill his role.
“At the end of the day, it comes down to whether everyone did their best to help the team. It’s like being on a merry-go-round and having an opportunity to grab that ring. We want that opportunity, and we need everyone at his best.”
History won’t mean much when the teams line up Saturday, but no program in the field has the championship tradition that NC State has. The Wolfpack men have won 11 of the last 15 team championships, including 2006 and 2009. The Pack has placed 69 runners on the all-conference team since 1995, an average of 4.6 per year. Six NC State runners have won the individual championship in that time, the last being Chris Kollar in 2007.
In the last decade, 41 NC State runners have earned All-ACC, three have won the individual championship, and the Wolfpack has come away with six team championships. And that success has come at a time when the conference has gotten stronger and deeper every year.
“The overall depth in the ACC has never been better,” Geiger said. “It seems that every school has at least a runner or two capable of being All-ACC, and the team score to win the championship seems to get higher every year. It gets to be more and more of a challenge every year.”
Women Looking To Be Back In The Mix
For the first 25 years the ACC sponsored a women’s cross country championship, the trophy pretty much took up permanent residence in Raleigh. NC State won 20 of the first 25 women’s championships, and was in the mix for the championship every year through 2007’s second-place finish.
Thanks to attrition, Wolfpack head coach Laurie Henes had to line up teams dominated by freshmen and sophomores in 2008 and ‘09, and both struggled. Those youngsters have grown up, and this year’s team fully expects to be a in the mix on Saturday.
“We’re a lot better than we’ve been the last couple of years, and we’re much better prepared for this race than we’ve been in years,” Henes said. “We have people in the right positions to do well.”
The focus for the Wolfpack is on freshman Laura Hoer, who to this point has had as strong a season as any NC State freshman in recent memory. Hoer won her first college race, the Wolfpack Invitational, by a staggering 29.5 seconds, then followed that a week later by pulling away from an impressive field down the stretch to win the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn.
Hoer’s winning streak was broken two weeks ago when she finished fourth at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, but she still ran a terrific race, hanging with the frontrunners throughout the race and finishing just 5.1 seconds off the pace.
Hoer enters the ACC Championships having dispelled any doubts about her standing among the nation’s best runners, but Henes cautions that winning the individual championship is not the ultimate goal here.
“Laura has proven that she’s one of the top runners in the country, but we don’t want expectations to get out of hand,” Henes said. “She can run a great race and finish third or fourth or fifth, and that’s perfectly okay. As much as she enjoys racing and winning, she really enjoys the team aspect of it, too, the idea that the higher she finishes, the better it is for the team. That really motivates her.”
Just as the men’s lineup is impressive well beyond Ryan Hill, the women are plenty deep enough to be a factor in the team standings Saturday. Senior Kara McKenna and junior Andie Cozzarelli have been consistent for the women all season, and sophomores Jordan Jenkins and Erin Mercer, along with true freshmen Kaitlyn Davis and Lillian Greibesland, appear to be rounding into peak shape at just the right time.
McKenna ran fifth at the Wolfpack Invitational and 29th at the Griak Invitational. Cozzarelli was seventh at the Wolfpack Invitational, 38th at Griak, and 37th at NCAA Pre-Nationals, a clear step forward in a race with national implications. She has shown steady progress from day one.
Jenkins was the Wolfpack’s third runner at last year’s conference championship race and fourth at the NCAA regionals. Mercer was NC State’s fifth runner at the 2009 ACC meet. The two freshmen, Davis and Greibesland, have progressed steadily since the start of the season and now show signs of being ready to make a significant contribution the rest of the way, beginning Saturday.
“We need for Kara and Andie to run to their fitness levels, and I’ll be very surprised if they don’t,” Henes said. “They’ve both been off the charts in workouts the last two weeks. Jori Jenkins, Erin Mercer, Kaitlyn Davis and Lillian Greibesland are in that next group, and we need for them to continue to progress. They’ve all been running really well in workouts leading up to this week.”
NC State last won the women’s championship in 2006, but the Wolfpack still was the ACC’s pre-eminent program in women’s cross country over the last decade. The Wolfpack has won four of the last 10 team championships, and 25 NC State runners earned All-ACC honors in that time. The Wolfpack has won 12 of the last 20 conference championships and 21 of 32 overall. NC State boasts 10 individual conference champions.
The conference is much more competitive now than it’s ever been, making NC State’s quest to reclaim its championship legacy that much more challenging. That said, this team appears ready for a good challenge right about now.
“The field on the women’s side is really deep, both with strong teams and standout individuals,” Henes said. “These kids know about the history of this program and they want to stake their claim to that. We’re at a much higher level than we’ve been the last couple of years, and I think they’re really excited about competing in this race.”
