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EDINBORO, PA – The Edinboro University
cross country team will compete in the NCAA Division II East
Regionals this Saturday, November 5 at Lock Haven University. The
women’s race, covering 6,000 meters, starts at 11:00 a.m.,
with the 10K men’s race to follow at 12 noon.
“Obviously the goals remain the
same as they have been for the past three decades, and that is to
run well enough to get to Nationals,” noted long-time head
coach Doug Watts.
The top three teams will advance to the NCAA
Division II National Championships on Saturday, November 19 in
Pomona, CA.
The Fighting Scot women’s team turned in
an impressive showing in this past weekend’s PSAC
Championships, winning their eighth straight title while easily
outdistancing second place Bloomsburg, 34 points to 97 points. All
five Edinboro scorers earned All-PSAC honors. Now the Fighting
Scots seek a third straight East Regional crown.
In addition, Julie Nemergut (Youngstown,
OH/South Range) tries for her second sweep of the individual
titles in the PSAC and East Regional races. She accomplished the
fete a year ago, and placed first last week with a time of 21:48.
That was 11 seconds better than teammate Rachael Lanzel (St.
Marys, PA/St. Marys Area), who finished second. Kelly
Richards (Edinboro, PA/General McLane) placed fifth with a
time of 22:34, followed by Heather Wilmoth (Sugar Grove,
PA/Eisenhower) with an 11th place finish (22:59). The fifth
all-conference performer was Michele Kelly (Carlisle,
PA/Carlisle), who earned All-PSAC honors for the first time in
cross country with a 15th place finish (23:09).
In addition to those five, Lindsay Roberts
(Wattsburg, PA/Seneca) placed 18th with a time of 23:29 in her
first race of the year, and Kiersten Buckley (Erie,
PA/Mercyhurst Prep) was 27th (23:42). Roberts has been out
with an injury all year.
“The women are prohibitive
favorites because of the PSAC meet,” admitted Watts. “They
showcased to a lot of people in the country that they are good. We
hadn’t really run for a few weeks. Our up-front three people
give us a lot of breathing room. Certainly in the next three weeks
I expect Heather Wilmoth and Lindsay Roberts to do nothing but get
better. Put that with the surprising consistency from Michele
Kelly, and we’re going to try to bring home the trophy at
Nationals.”
It wasn’t that long ago that the men’s
team dominated the East Region. At one point Edinboro won 11
straight East Regional crowns. The last two years the Fighting
Scots have finished second, and they are probably in for a similar
fate this weekend.
The men’s cross country team earned a
second place finish at the PSAC Championships for the third
straight year. The Fighting Scots finished with 70 points,
narrowly losing to Lock Haven. The Bald Eagles finished with 63
points. Shippensburg was third with 110 points.
Ryan Coon (Clymer, NY/Sherman), noted
for his strong postseason performances, led the way for the Scots
with a fifth place finish (25:40). Jared Lowry (North Canton,
OH/North Canton Hoover) placed sixth with the same time.
Unfortunately, those were the only two men’s
runners to earn All-PSAC honors. John Moneyhon (Columbus,
OH/Dublin Coffman) placed 17th (26;12), falling back in the
final 1½ miles after running in the top eight up to that
point. Nick Hankins (Pepper Pike, OH/Orange) was next in
20th place (26:19), followed by Dan Field (East Aurora,
NY/East Aurora) in 22nd place (26:24). Jeremy Boehm
(Lewisberry, PA/Red Land), 23rd with a time of 26:29, and Travis
Prejean (Jamestown, NY/ Jamestown), 41st (27:08) rounded out
the Edinboro runners.
“The guys are going into the
regional meet with a degree of confidence they didn’t have
two weeks ago,” Watts pointed out. “Their run at the
conference championships was typical for us, where we run okay,
but not really good. If tradition means anything, we’ll run
twenty seconds per man better. Will that be enough, probably not.
(Dan) Field did not have a good meet. We expect him to get back to
all-region form. (John) Moneyhon will be better than his
conference performance when he decided to run out early.”
A year ago the Fighting Scots swept the
individual races, as Coon came away with first place. Lowry was
13th and Field 14th. |
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