University of Connecticut Athletics
Women's Cross Country Set For NCAA Regionals
11/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 11, 2010
Storrs, Conn. - The Connecticut women's cross country squad will compete on Saturday, November 13 in the NCAA Cross Country Regionals held at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Fairfield, Conn. The NCAA Regional Championship is hosted by Fairfield and Yale Universities and is set to begin at 12 p.m.
"Our best program finish is 11th so we would like to end the year by having another UConn best with a top-10 finish - make a little more history! Everyone is very motivated and excited to end the year with an exclamation point and use it as a great springboard for next cross country season as well as the upcoming indoor track season," said Cross Country Coach Andrea Grove-McDonough.
The Huskies are coming off a seventh-place finish at the BIG EAST Championships. The top-half showing is the best performance in the last decade. In that race, freshman Lauren Sara (Stratford, Conn.) led the way for UConn, finishing 30th overall with a time of 22:06. Sara's finish put her in the top-five among all freshmen in the BIG EAST.
"We are definitely looking for Lauren to establish herself at this meet as our season's number one runner and match her performance from the BIG EAST. There is no question she is ready to do that - and so are a few of her teammates. I think she will have some company up front from some of her fellow huskies as well," added Grove-McDonough.
Sophomore Shauna McNiff (Hingham, Mass.) was UConn's second finisher with a 36th place showing in 22:32.
The top-two teams from each region will earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championship and there will also be 13 at-large bids that will be given to selected teams throughout the various regions based on previous competitions. The top-four individuals in each region that are not part of a qualifying team will also advance to the NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 20.
In last season's NCAA Regional Championship, the Huskies placed 16th out of 35 teams. McNiff ran a strong race, finishing 64th out of nearly 240 runners with a time of 23:53. Syracuse claimed the individual and team title at the 2009 NCAA Northeast Regionals.
The underclassmen have led the way through the 2010 Cross Country campaign. At the BIG EAST Championships, the top-four finishers were freshmen and sophomores. Freshmen or sophomores have been the top finishers in six of nine races this year.
Check UConnhuskies.com on Saturday afternoon for a recap of the NCAA Regional Championship and quotes from UConn Cross Country Coach Andrea Grove-McDonough.
