WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY RETURNS TO NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS...
CLEVELAND, OH (November 14, 2007) -
The Case Western Reserve University women's cross country team travels to Minnesota on Saturday. However, they aren't going to see the Mall of America or visit the acclaimed Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. They are going to the Land of 10,000 Lakes to compete in the 2007 NCAA Cross Country Championships in Northfield, Minnesota.
And they have every intention of coming back to Cleveland as winners.
“This is ‘it' for us,” said Head Cross Country Coach Kathy Lanese. “This is going to be a very competitive race on a very competitive course. But we've been rolling with the punches all season and we'll be ready this weekend.”
The team is coming off a second place finish at the Great Lakes Regional Championship at Calvin College Nov. 10 and is currently ranked seventh in the nation by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. They are second in the Great Lakes Region behind only Calvin, who Lanese believes the Spartans will need to stay close to this weekend to have any chance of leaving Minnesota with some hardware.
“Being familiar with Calvin and many of the other schools competing this weekend definitely helps us,” Lanese said. “If we can focus on staying close with schools like Calvin and Washington University I think we will have a successful finish.”
The top runner for the women's team will be senior Esther Erb ( pictured on page one ), who is quite possibly the most accomplished athlete that Case Western Reserve has seen of late. Erb, a Richmond, Virginia native, has won six consecutive races. The two-time All-American captured the school's first University Athletic Association (UAA) individual championship in women's cross country Oct. 27 and followed that up with a first-place finish at the Great Lakes Regional. Her best race of the season may have been at the All-Ohio Championships Oct. 5 where she finished first in a field of 290 runners from Division I, II, III, and NAIA.
“Esther is ready to win and won't accept anything but that,” Lanese said. “She told me a few weeks ago when she was looking at a picture of herself that she had the ‘twinkle of a champion'. She knows that running that last 1,000 meters is where decisions are going to be made and it's going to come down to who wants it more.”
Also running her final race for the women will be senior Sarah Gill (Sharpsville, PA). Gill has earned UAA All-Academic honors the past two seasons and played a big part in the team closing the gaps between the top runners this season. Along with the seniors and the team's younger runners, Lanese believes this team has a mixture of youth and experience that has driven them to be successful all season.
“The young runners have taken on a relaxed role and really have no fear of new obstacles they've had to overcome this season,” Lanese said. “I knew the freshman I had coming in would be inexperienced at the collegiate level, but I can honestly say I've been pleasantly surprised and many of the younger runners have taken on an important role this season.”
The meet will take place in Northfield, Minnesota on the campus of St. Olaf College. The women's race is scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m., while the men's race is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. Last season, the women finished tenth as a team.
THEN THERE WERE SEVEN ... The seven runners that will wear the silver and blue for the Spartans this saturday are: Britta Kumley - Andrea Fischione - Esther Erb - Sarah Gill - Kristen Bowhers - Qiaoqiao ( Joy) Zhu - Justine Jeroski & Alternate: Colleen Heffernan .
ABOUT CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY … Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826 and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research, service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Work. http://www.case.edu .
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