Thursday October 4, 2001

The term "cross country" will take on a whole different meaning for the UA men's and women's cross country teams this weekend.

Making their longest trip of the season, the teams will head northeast for the Murray Keatinge Invitational in Orono, Maine.

During what would generally be an off-week for the team, this meet will be one of the most important of the season for head coach Dave Murray.

Keatinge was a very close friend of the long-time UA head coach, and after he died last spring, Murray made sure this meet would be on his squad's schedule.

"Normally, we only make the trip to Maine every four years or so," Murray said. "This meet is really a memorial to my good friend.

"It's also a great experience for some of the kids to get out and see a part of the country that they normally would not be able to."

Murray said he hopes his Wildcats excel in a meet that does not boast great competition.

A week after finishing third in one of the season's most difficult meets, the women's team should have no problem with the field.

"I never like to be too optimistic, but our women should be able to win this meet running backwards," Murray said.

The Wildcats will bring a few different runners with them this weekend and are likely to leave senior standout Abby Peters home once again to rest a nerve injury in her hip. Senior Tara Chaplin will likely lead the Wildcats again after finishing fourth overall last weekend, and she says that her team cannot pay attention to its lofty status after their opening meet.

"Rankings do not mean anything, there is no way to predict cross country," Chaplin said. "I have never been to this meet before, so I do not know what to expect."

The men's team's outlook for the tournament is not quite as bright as their female counterparts'.

With elite squads such as Michigan and Stanford running in Orono, a greater challenge will certainly be posed to the men, who will try to improve on a 16th-place finish in their first meet of the season.

Ultimately, though, Murray said he wants to make sure both of his teams enjoy solid runs before next weekend's Pre-NCAA Invitational.

"I usually don't like to run three weeks in a row," Murray said. "We had a high-pressure meet last week, and we have another coming up with the Pre-NCAA's, so we're gonna try to enjoy Maine and run easy as possible."