Women's Cross Country to Travel to Auburn

Sept. 24, 2007

IOWA CITY, IA –

NEXT TIME OUT– The women’s next competition will be September 30 at the Auburn Invitational at the Indian Pines Golf Course in Auburn, AL. The women will be running a 5K which will start at 9:30 a.m.

WOMEN’S LAST TIME OUT–The University of Iowa women’s cross country team hosted the Hawkeye Invitational at the Ashton Cross Country Course. The women scored wins over Wichita State, Oregon State and Northern Iowa with senior Diane Nukuri winning the women’s 4,000-meter race in 13:14. The time broke both the course and school records. Six Hawkeyes finished in the top 10 and 14 ran their personal best for the women’s team. Senior Meghan Armstrong placed second (13:47), followed by sophomore Jolly Burke (4th-14:03), sophomore Krista Anderson (6th-14:14), senior Jessica Schmidt (8th-14:21) and freshman Lauren Hardesty (9th-14:28).

THE RANKINGS–The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association has released its preseason rankings for the 2007 season. The Hawkeye women are ranked 14th nationally and third in the Midwest region.

HAWKEYE WOMEN’S COACH LAYNE ANDERSON– Layne Anderson is in his fifth year as head women’s cross country coach at Iowa. In his four years with the cross country team, the Hawkeyes have made strong strides toward recapturing the program’s success of the 1980’s. The program took a major step in that direction in 2006, qualifying for the NCAA Championships as a team for the first time in 14 years and posting its highest Big Ten finish (sixth) since 1993. The Hawkeyes also recorded their highest finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional meet (third) under Anderson. Iowa has improved its finish at the NCAA midwest regional each season, placing ninth in 2003, seventh in 2004, sixth in 2005 and third in 2006.

QUOTING COACH ANDERSON– “We ran a little bit better than I had anticipated. Diane and Meghan did a tremendous job while several others did more than expected. Overall, I thought Oregon State and Wichita State were very solid. The meet was actually a lot closer than the score indicated.”

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Click HERE for the Big Ten Network home page.