Oct. 5, 2004
IOWA CITY, IA –
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THIS WEEK – The University of Iowa women’s cross country team will compete in the Lamb-Kohawk Invitational Saturday at Jones Park in Cedar Rapids, IA. The women will run a 6,000 meter course beginning at 11:00 a.m. A number of local Iowa colleges are expected to compete.
LAST WEEK – The Hawkeyes competed at the Murray Keatinge Invitational in Orono ME. Both the men’s and women’s teams showed improvement from their season openers. The men’s team scored 61 points to finish third while the Iowa women finished fourth with 109 points.
In the men’s 4.96 mile run, senior Matt Esche lead the Hawkeyes running 24:30:60 to finish third. Freshman Eric MacTaggart delivered a sixth place finish in 24:36:70. Senior Tony Rakaric finished 15th while sophomores Micah VanDenend was 17th and Jeff Kent 20th. Dartmouth won the meet with 35 team points. Patrich Tarpy, from Brown University finished first in 24:19:50.
In the women’s 5,000 meter race both sophomores Nikki Chapple and Shannon Stanley ran persoanl bests. Chapple finished fifth in 17:18:30 while Stanley ran 17:47:50 finishing 13th. Freshman Meghan Armstrong and Racheal Marchand finished 21st and 28th. Southern Methodist University won the meet with 35 points. Karin VanBooyen from Southern Methodist won in a time 17:02:90.
HONORS – Senior Tony Rakaric was named captain to the men’s team last week. Rakaric is the only true senior on the team and his leadership drives his teammates to be the best each day.
HAWKEYE COACH Larry Wieczorek – Larry Wieczorek is in his 18th season as Iowa men’s cross country coach. In the past six years, Iowa has placed no lower than sixth at the NCAA Regional, including a first place finish at the 2002 NCAA Regional, the highest finish in school history. Wieczorek was a two-time Big Ten champion and a member of Iowa’s last Big Ten track championship team in 1967. Wieczorek still owns Iowa records in the outdoor 5,000-meters and the indoor two mile.
HAWKEYE COACH Layne Anderson – Layne Anderson enters his second season as Iowa women’s cross country coach and assistant women’s track coach. In his first season at Iowa, Anderson guided the cross country team to a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional. Anderson served as the head men’s and women’s cross country coach and assistant track coach at Auburn University prior to joining the Iowa staff. During his tenure at Auburn, he coached seven all-Americans, two SEC champions and 58 academic all-SEC performers.
QUOTING COACH ANDERSON – “This was a good weekend for our team. It was what I expected. We could have done a little better but we were still about where we wanted to be. We only got beat by three nationally ranked teams. We ran fast and did what we wanted to do. This upcoming meet will be small and local. It will give our girls who haven’t raced much an opportunity to improve and gain more experience. Our goal is to go out and run well one more time before pre-Nationals in two weeks.