North Carolina State University Athletics
Cross Country To Run in NCAA Championships Monday
11/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 19, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. — The NCAA Cross Country Championships will be held Monday, Nov. 22, in Terre Haute, Ind., beginning with the women’s 6k race at 12:08 p.m. The men’s 10k race will follow at 12:48 p.m. A live webcast of both races will be available on NCAA.com.
NC State will be making its NCAA-record 26th appearance in the women’s national championship race. This will be the men’s 23rd appearance at nationals, and their 21st appearance in the last 27 years.
One of the biggest storylines for the women’s race will be NC State freshman Laura Hoer, the ACC and NCAA regional champion who has won four of the five races she has entered this season.
Hoer won the season-opening Wolfpack Invitational by 29.5 seconds, then broke away down the stretch to win the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn., a week later. After a strong fourth-place finish at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, Hoer came back to win the ACC Championships and the NCAA Southeast Regional.
With Hoer leading the way, NC State is currently ranked 29th in the latest United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national poll. Joining Hoer in the lineup will be junior Andie Cozzarelli, an All-ACC and All-NCAA Regional performer, and redshirt-senior Kara McKenna, who earned All-NCAA Regional honors last weekend.
The rest of the women’s lineup will include sophomores Jordan Jenkins and Erin Mercer, and redshirt-freshmen Lauren Doherty and Halsey Merritt.
The NC State men, ranked 16th in the latest national poll by the USTFCCCA, will field a lineup built around 2009 All-American Ryan Hill and 2010 all-regional performer Andrew Colley.
Hill, a junior who earned All-ACC and All-NCAA Regional honors earlier this season, has excelled on the course in Terre Haute. A year ago, he finished ninth in the blue race at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, then took 19th at the NCAA Championships to earn All-America honors. Earlier this season he finished second in the white race at Pre-Nationals.
Colley, a redshirt-freshman, was the Wolfpack’s top runner at both the ACC Championships and the NCAA Southeast Regional, taking ninth place in the conference race and sixth at the regional to earn all-conference and all-regional honors.
Rounding out the men’s lineup at nationals will be redshirt-junior Bobby Moldovan, sophomore Matt Sonnenfeldt, redshirt-junior Andrew North, redshirt-senior Sandy Roberts and redshirt-sophomore Lewis McPherson.
NC State Cross Country Notebook
• This season marks the 26th appearance at the NCAA Championships by the NC State women’s cross country team. That is the most by any school. The Wolfpack was tied with Brigham Young with 25 appearances apiece, but the Cougars did not qualify for this year’s national championship race.
• This year marks the 23rd appearance at the NCAA Championships for the NC State men. That ranks 22nd among Division I schools. This will be the 21st appearance for the NC State men since 1984, and only Wisconsin (27), Arkansas (27), Colorado (24) and Georgetown (22) have appeared more times than NC State in that time.
• The NC State women have had 12 runners finish in the national top 10, which is tied with Brigham Young for fifth most in NCAA history behind Stanford (24), Villanova (21), Providence (15) and Wisconsin (14).
• NC State had three women runners finish in the top 10 in 1987. Only five other teams ever have had three runners finish in the top 10 in the same year: Virginia in 1981, Villanova in 1992 and 1993, Arkansas in 1993, and BYU in 2001.
• NC State runners won three of the first five NCAA individual championships for women: Betty Springs in 1981 and 1983, and Suzie Tuffey in 1985.
• Former Wolfpack standout Janet Smith is one of just 17 women ever to finish in the top 10 of the NCAA Championships at least three different times. Smith finished eighth in 1984, 10th in 1985, and sixth in 1987.
• Hoer will be gunning for a special place in the NC State record books when she lines up on Monday. She will be trying for her fifth victory in 2010, which would make her one of just three runners ever to win five races or more in a single season.
Springs holds the school record with six individual championships as a senior in 1983. Two years later, Tuffey won five races as a freshman, and just missed winning a sixth. Smith edged Tuffey by 0.4 seconds in the Kentucky Invitational to open the season. Tuffey then won the final five races of the year.
Hoer is one of four NC State runners to win four races in a single season. Julie Shea won four as a senior in 1980, Bob Henes won four as a senior in 1990, and Laura Rhodes won four as a senior in 1997.
• Not only has NC State been a steady presence at the NCAA Championships, the Wolfpack regularly competes for the championship. The NC State men have finished in the top 10 nine times since 1984, including a third-place finish, a fifth-place finish and a sixth-place finish. The women have had 11 finishes in the top 10 since 1981, including a pair of second-place finishes and three third-place finishes.
• The top 40 runners in each race earn All-America honors. NC State has three All-Americans — Bona Jones, Hill and Emily Pritt — on its current rosters and will be looking to add more on Monday. NC State has had 23 All-Americans on the men’s team (16 different runners), and 40 on the women’s team (21 different runners). NC State has had at least one All-American on either the men’s or women’s roster, or both, every year since 1977, and has produced at least one All-American, men’s or women’s, every year but five in that same span.
