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THIS WEEK – The University of Iowa men’s and women’s cross country teams will begin preparation for post season action in Terre Haute, IN at Pre-Nationals Saturday. The competition will be held at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. The women will begin at 11 a.m. running 6,000 meters and the men at 12:15 p.m. running 8,000 meters. Iowa will be hoping to achieve at-large points for the post season.
HONORS – Senior Jenni Capista has been named captain of the 2004 Hawkeyes. Capista, a senior from Shorewood, IL has competed in every meet this season. She was one of four Hawkeyes to compete in every race in last year.
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 WIECZOREK – “We have had a good week of training. We are close to firing all of our cylinders. This will be a tough meet and we need to be ready to run our best race. It will give us a chance to run on the same course as the NCAA meet. But the key is to run well and beat teams from other regionals from around the country. Hopefully we will do ourselves some good this weekend.”
QUOTING COACH ANDERSON – “This is going to be an important race for us. We have to be ready to run or best. The more at-large points we get, the better standing we will have going to the postseason. We just need to go out and run the way we are capable. We do that, and we should be fine.”