Skieresz has chance at unprecedented feat

Records are uncertain, but UA head coach Dave Murray believes it may also be an NCAA-first as well.

Skieresz won her first title at the women's NCAA Cross Country Championships in November. On Friday she won the 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis with a time of 15 minutes, 39.26 seconds, the fastest by an American collegiate athlete all season.

"I've never really thought about it before," Skieresz said. "It would be really great to win all three."

"It would be a great accomplishment," Murray said. "It's never been done before here."

The only female UA athlete to have won a running event at the indoor championships was Brenda Sleeuwenhoek in 1994. She finished 12th at the cross country championships in the fall of 1993, and she was fourth at the outdoor championships.

"I feel a little bit more confident," Skieresz said after her victory over long-time rival Kathy Butler last weekend. "When I was racing against Kathy my confidence wasn't that high, not as much as in a normal race. I have a lot of respect for her. I had never beaten her before."

Skieresz won the race over Butler by exactly eight seconds.

The NCAA Outdoor Championships are June 4-7, and Skieresz said that she hasn't even begun to think about them or what event she wants to compete in.

"Right now I'm taking a little bit of a mental break," Skieresz said. "It's pretty much open right now as to what I'll run."

Murray said he is considering letting Skieresz go where she has never gone before.

"We're seriously considering the 10,000, since it would be a new challenge for her," Murray said. "She's going to run the 10,000 at the Penn Relays in order to get a qualifying time. She has to get a time to qualify for the event at the championships. I think she is capable of getting it any day of the week."

After a stellar career at Agoura Hills (Calif.) High School, which included the California state championships in cross country in 1993 and 1994, Skieresz came to Arizona and made an immediate impact.

She won both the Pac-10 and District VIII titles as a freshman and finished second in the NCAA championships.

Her NCAA cross country title was the first-ever for an Arizona woman runner.

As the possibility of taking home the unofficial "triple crown" dawned on her, one might be left to wonder what there would be left to accomplish for the sophomore.

"There's always more (to accomplish)," she said. "Defending all of my titles for the next two years will be tough enough. There's always more out there beyond the UA, too."

Skieresz will no't compete in the Wildcats' next meet, because she will be attending the christening of her nephew, Murray said.