University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
BIG EAST Championship
Women's Cross Country Finishes 10th at BIG EAST Championship
10/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Oct. 31, 2009
KENOSHA, Wisc. - The University of Connecticut women's cross country team finished in 10th place at the 2009 BIG EAST Championship at the Wayne E. Dannehl National XC Course in Kenosha, Wisc. on Saturday afternoon.
Freshman Megan Jacoby led the way for the Huskies with a 54th place finish and was the first UConn finisher for the program at her first BIG EAST Championship. Christine Vogel, who was the Huskies' top finisher at the Penn State National, was UConn's second runner to cross the finish line as she took 57th place.
Three of the Huskies' top-five finishers were freshman in today's 6K race, which was hosted by Marquette University. Second-ranked Villanova took first place in today's championship, leading a top-five group of all nationally-ranked programs. The Wildcats had four individual runners place within the top-five finishers to become the 2009 BIG EAST Women's Cross Country Champions.
"Our performance today was good but at the end of the day I was still a little disappointed in the final results," said distance coach Andrea Grove-McDonough. "We are obviously better than we have been the past few years, and in perspective, the best finish our program has ever had is ninth. Maybe I'm just hard to please but I really believe we could have been ninth today or at least made it closer. Once you start breaking into that seven, eight, and nine range in this conference, the most elite in the country, you are really becoming a very good cross country team.
"Overall I like the direction we are going and when I look at the teams who finished sixth through ninth, they are loaded with upperclassmen and seniors, where we are loaded with freshman and sophomores. We lose only one from our top nine next year and I have to mention that most of the top-five ran their fastest 5k's of the year in the midst of this race today, so they went for it and that shows some real guts on the part of the team."
Last year UConn's top runner was 62nd place, this year Jacoby was 54th and all of the top-five UConn finishers were ahead of what was the Huskies' second runner from last season.
"What we need now is someone who can get that low stick for us, break into the 30 range," said McDonough. "We definitely had that with Courtney Dinnan this year and there is no doubt that we are missing her presence on the course. I don't care who you are, losing your No. 1 runner is going to hurt you in a championship meet.
"Now we look ahead to the NCAA Regional meet and continuing to elevate our performance and find that real "championship team performance"."
Players Mentioned
