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Cross country teams end season at NCAAs

[Picture]

Arizona Daily Wildcat
Photo courtesy of Arizona Sports Information Dept. Junior David Lopez leads a pack of runners during the Pre-NCAA Championships on Oct. 16 at Indiana University. Lopez was UA's top finisher at the NCAA Championships on Monday, which was also held at Indiana University.

By Angela Romano
Arizona Daily Wildcat, November 24, 1999		Talk about this story

After winning the Pacific 10 Conference crown and finishing second at NCAA West Regional meet, the UA men's cross country team earned a spot in the NCAA Championships.

The women's team, though, had to struggle through the season before finishing sixth NCAA West Regional, earning themselves an at-large berth for Monday's race.

The NCAA Championships, though, proved to be too much competition for both squads as the men's team finished 10th in Bloomington, Ind., while the women's team finished 27th.

Arkansas won the men's title with 58 points and Brigham Young won the women's with 72 points.

The men's team was led by junior David Lopez, who was Arizona's top finisher in 55th place (31:31.10). Sophomore Steve Smith was 71st (31:46.40) and sophomore Mike Cramer was 74th (31:49.40). Senior Brent Pederson was 82nd (31:54.10) and sophomore Tom Prindiville was 163rd (32:54.30).

Senior Micheil Jones, who had been the team's top runner throughout the season finish including a win at the Pac-10 championships, finished just 231st (34:15.80).

"Micheil had one of those days where he just didn't run well," head coach Dave Murray said. "But that doesn't downplay the rest of the season, one of our goals was come in the top 10 and we did it."

The women's team finished with 608 points.

Sophomore Tara Chaplin was the team's top finisher coming in 33rd with a time of 17:27.40.

"Tara had a very strong race," Murray said regarding the women's team No. 1 runner for the whole season.

Sophomores Erin Doherty and Jennifer Burris were 145th (18:17.80) and 158th (18:22.20) respectively. Junior Katrin Engelen was 190th (18:39.80), freshman Kim Bates was 225th (19:05.60) and freshman Mandee Ash was 242nd (19:40.00).

"The women's team ran how we thought we could, the team is very young and they did very well," Murray said.

The meet marked the conclusion of the 1999 cross country season, with the track and field season looming just over the horizon, ready to begin on Jan. 29 at the Silver State Games in Reno, Nev.

The first of the postseason cross country awards were also announced yesterday and Cramer, Pederson and Chaplin were all named to the Pac-10 All-Academic first team.

Jones earned second team honors, while Prindiville, Burris and Engelen were all tabbed with honorable mention honors.