WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY FINISHES SECOND AT BIG SKY CHAMPIONSHIPS; MEN ARE SIXTH
11/1/2008
PORTLAND, Ore. — Led by three all-Big Sky Conference finishers, the Sacramento State women’s cross country team finished second at the Big Sky Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning. The Hornet men placed sixth.
The Sacramento State women, which had never finished higher than sixth at the meet, were led by Kristina Holtz who finished sixth overall on the 5K course with a time of 17:22.4. By virtue of her top 10 finish, Holtz earned all-Big Sky honors for the second time in her career.
Sophomore Renisha Robinson also garnered all-conference accolades by finishing seventh in 17:33.5 Junior Caprice Bradshaw was ninth with a time of 17:35.4 in her first Big Sky meet.
The Hornets also counted two other top 20 finishes and a third in the top 30. Erin Lewis finished 17th in 17:55.2, Jodie Leal placed 20th in 17:55.2 and Erin Wachter ran 18:24.6 to place 28th. The rest of the lineup was made up of Lora Marchini (37th, 18:39.5) and Lea Wallace (40th, 18:46.6).
“This was something that I knew we were capable of but it was great to see the team go out and do it,” cross country coach Scott Abbott said. “To finish next to last last year and move up to second place this year really surprised the rest of the league.”
Sacramento State scored 59 points and trailed only Northern Arizona which tallied 31 to win another Big Sky title. Weber State was third with 63 points while Idaho State (107) and Montana (121) completed the top five.
Northern Arizona had three of the top four individual finishers, including Veronica Pohl who finished first in 17:03.1.
In the men’s race, Northern Arizona completed the sweep with 19 points. The Lumberjacks had six athletes finish in the top 10 and were paced by David McNeill’s winning time of 23:20.0.
Sacramento State was guided by Colin Szehner who ran 24:37.6 to place 17th. Dominic Vogl ran 24:56.2 to finish 25th and Scott Grose was 29th in 25:14.1. Chris Romo was 31st overall in 25:20.7 and Jason Sey ran 25:30.4 to place 35th to complete the team’s scorers.
Kyle Lackner (36th, 25:31.4) Myko Lucas (47th, 26:10.3) and Daniel Carlson (58th, 26:37.8) completed the lineup.
Sacramento State will return to action on Nov. 15 at the NCAA West Regional hosted by Stanford.
WOMEN’S TEAM SCORES
1. Northern Arizona 31 2. Sacramento State 59
3. Weber State 63
4. Idaho State 107
5. Montana 121
6. Montana State 134
7. Eastern Washington 206
8. Portland State 214
9. Northern Colorado 221
INDIVIDUAL TOP FIVE
1. Veronica Pohl, NAU, 17:03.1
2. Astrid Leutert, NAU, 17:10.3
3. Katrina Dennen, UM, 17:20.1
4. Nell Rojas, NAU, 17:21.4
5. Natalie Haws, WSU, 17:21.6
MEN’S TEAM SCORES
1. Northern Arizona 19
2. Weber State 65
3. Eastern Washington 105
4. Montana 108
5. Montana State 119 6. Sacramento State 137
7. Idaho State 184
8. Portland State 238
9. Northern Colorado 256
INDIVIDUAL TOP FIVE
1. David McNeill, NAU, 23:20.0
2. Ben Ashkettle, NAU, 23:26.4
3. Diego Estrada, NAU, 23:39.9
4. Paul Limpf, EWU, 23:34.9
5. Morten Bostrom, NAU, 23:36.4
