Iowa To Host Midwest Regional

Nov. 7, 2005

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THIS WEEK – The University of Iowa men’s and women’s cross country teams will host the Midwest Regional Championships at the Ashton Cross Country course Saturday. The men’s team will run their 10,000 meter race at 11 a.m. and the women will follow at 12:15 p.m. Last season at Regionals the men finished third and the women finished seventh.

For ticket info, teams competing and other information visit the 2005 Midwest Regional Championships home page at: www.hawkeyesports.collegesports.com/ot/ncaa-reg-xc-2005.html.

LAST TIME OUT – The Iowa men placed fourth at the Big Ten Championships The Hawkeyes finished with a total time of 2:06:14 and 124 points. Senior Adam Roche led Iowa with a time of 25:04 and finished in 20th place. The Iowa women placed seventh at Big Tens. Iowa finished with 170 team points and a team time of 1:52:18. Sophomore Meghan Armstrong finished 22nd out of 232 runners with a time of 20:49. Armstrong has led the team in every race this year.

IOWA IN THE RANKINGS – The Iowa men are currently ranked No. 20 in the Mondo Men’s NCAA-I Cross Country Poll and No. 3 in the Midwest Region Poll. The Iowa women are ranked No. 33 in the FinishLynx Women’s NCAA Division-I Cross Country Poll and No. 5 in the Midwest Region Poll.

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 is in 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 – “Our region might be the toughest it has been in some time. There are a lot of good teams that are coming on strong now and the field should be a good meet. We feel we are in good posistion to to get into the NCAA’s with a solid perfomance this weekend because of the performances we’ve had so far.”

QUOTING COACH ANDERSON – “Anytime you host you say you have a home-field or in our case a home-course advantage. In this case I think being at home should really help us and work to our benifit. Not just knowing the course really well, but also just being comfortable by not having to travel and being in town. “

QUOTING Meghan Armstrong – “I have felt some pressure to perform as well as I have. But, I think that the pressure has been a good thing and has only boosted my confidence. I’m looking forward to this meet because it should be really exciting with all of the fans watching.”

QUOTING Matt Esche – “Our team has a lot of depth which I think helps us a lot. Knowing our course should be an advanatage also. Some of us have ran on this course for four years and we really know a lot about it. I feel we can go out there and stay focused and run the race our way.”