2008 Woodie Awards
Cross country heats things up in Alaska
By Brian Hagberg
Rocket Contributor
Issue date: 9/7/07 Section: Sports
SRU's cross country teams came away victorious on Saturday in both the men's and women's competition.
The 11th ranked men were 18-41 winners over 25th ranked Alaska-Anchorage, while the No. 15 women took home a 23-56 win. Coach John Papa was extremely pleased with the way his team competed.
"I thought we competed very well, especially against their men's team which was ranked 25th," Papa said. "Three of what we would consider to be our top five girls didn't compete and we still ran very well, I was very excited."
Junior All-American Jeff Weiss took first place with a time of 22:41 on the 4.5-mile course. Rounding out the top five for the men were junior Pat Reagan (2nd, 23:07), seniors Matt Bluman (4th, 23:31) and Chris Geddis (5th, 23:52), and sophomore Brian Ulrich (6th, 23:59).
Junior Katie Bork led the women's team with a time of 19:08 on the 5,000-meter course, good for second place. Bork was followed by junior Jaime Wright (3rd, 19:43), sophomore Emily Skoczlas (6th, 20:17), and freshmen Rebecca Younger (7th, 20:18) and Crystal Burnick (8th, 20:32).
Papa said that Bork has been making a good comeback from the mononucleosis that kept her out of action last year, but he felt that Wright was the biggest surprise Saturday.
"Jaime Wright has shown tremendous improvement from last year, she's been working really hard this season," Papa said.
The Rock will next see action when the team travels to the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Invitational on September 15. With an extra week to prepare Papa said that he has confidence that his team will be in good condition.
"They have the schedule and they know when to take it easy and what days they need to go harder," Papa said. "I have confidence in them that they'll be ready."
The 11th ranked men were 18-41 winners over 25th ranked Alaska-Anchorage, while the No. 15 women took home a 23-56 win. Coach John Papa was extremely pleased with the way his team competed.
"I thought we competed very well, especially against their men's team which was ranked 25th," Papa said. "Three of what we would consider to be our top five girls didn't compete and we still ran very well, I was very excited."
Junior All-American Jeff Weiss took first place with a time of 22:41 on the 4.5-mile course. Rounding out the top five for the men were junior Pat Reagan (2nd, 23:07), seniors Matt Bluman (4th, 23:31) and Chris Geddis (5th, 23:52), and sophomore Brian Ulrich (6th, 23:59).
Junior Katie Bork led the women's team with a time of 19:08 on the 5,000-meter course, good for second place. Bork was followed by junior Jaime Wright (3rd, 19:43), sophomore Emily Skoczlas (6th, 20:17), and freshmen Rebecca Younger (7th, 20:18) and Crystal Burnick (8th, 20:32).
Papa said that Bork has been making a good comeback from the mononucleosis that kept her out of action last year, but he felt that Wright was the biggest surprise Saturday.
"Jaime Wright has shown tremendous improvement from last year, she's been working really hard this season," Papa said.
The Rock will next see action when the team travels to the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Invitational on September 15. With an extra week to prepare Papa said that he has confidence that his team will be in good condition.
"They have the schedule and they know when to take it easy and what days they need to go harder," Papa said. "I have confidence in them that they'll be ready."
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