UA women win Regional title

The UA men's team finished in a tie for fourth place behind No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Oregon and unranked Washington State.

Arizona senior Amy Skieresz once again led the way for the women, claiming her fourth consecutive NCAA Regional title by edging Julia Stamps of Stanford. Five UA women placed in the top 30 and the strong team effort led to the upset of Stanford.

"The key to our women's performance was the running of our three, four and five runners," UA head coach Dave Murray said. "Kristen Parrish, Claire Becker and Brooke Murphy really came through for us."

Parrish placed 17th, followed by Becker in 19th and Murphy in 27th.

With the win, the UA women automatically qualify for a spot in the NCAA Championships.

Senior Abdi Abdirahman won the individual title in the men's race with a time of 30-minutes, six seconds, which was six seconds ahead of Stanford's Brad Hauser, who finished in 30:12.

Abdirahman was followed among his teammates by sophomore David Lopez in 19th and freshman Steve Smith in 26th.

"Steve Smith ran a strong, strong race for his first 10,000-meter event, and David (Lopez) had a strong performance also," Murray said.

Junior Micheil Jones, who had been running in peak form the last couple of meets, dropped out of the race a little beyond the three mile mark, complaining of trouble breathing.

"Micheil dropped out of the race and said that he had been feeling ill for a couple of days," Murray said. "Our other runners stepped up and ran their best."

With their fourth place finish in the Regional meet, an NCAA Championship bid for the men's squad is still questionable, pending the selection committee's decision.

"The criteria for qualifying says that we can't jump in front of Washington State because they placed ahead of us at Regionals," Murray said. "We may be ranked higher than Washington State and have a stronger schedule all year, but we may be left out and that's the way selection goes."

Murray still remains optimistic that the selection committee will take into account the competitiveness of the Pacific 10 Conference and the current top 10 ranking of the UA men.

"I'm very confident that we will be in there for nationals," Murray said. "There isn't a three or four team in their conference that comes close to matching us."

The men's team will learn of their NCAA National fate by tonight at 5. If they qualify, the men will join the women Nov. 23 to compete at the NCAA Championships in Lawrence, Kan.

Brian Wahlund can be reached via e-mail at Brian.Wahlund@wildcat.arizona.edu.