Hokies host Festival in the Fields meet on Saturday morning
BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech men's and women's cross country teams begin the 2004 season at home this Saturday, Sept. 4 when they host Festival in the Fields at the Tech Cross Country Course.The 6 kilometer men's race will start at 9:30 a.m. while the women's 4k race begins at 10:15 a.m. Concord University, East Tennessee State, Liberty University, Longwood University, Milligan College, Roanoke College and Wayne State University are all slated to race with Tech on the course this year.
This meet gives the Tech squads the opportunity to continue their training while giving the newcomers their first taste of collegiate cross country. "At this first meet, we hope to establish running as a pack. We hope to see a good pack of five or six runners stay together and finish strong in both races. We have always had a good showing from our runners at out first home meet and we plan to continue that trend," stated head cross country coach Ben Thomas.
Tech's women's team is much deeper this year, but will have to overcome the loss of All-American Marlies Overbeeke. While that is an unenviable task, Tech returns three all-district women runners in senior Jessica Morris (Coatesville, Pa.) and sophomore Morgan Ekemo (Eagle River, Alaska).
Last season, Morris had Tech's second-best individual finish at the BIG EAST Championships, coming in 17th. Ekemo was 34th at the NCAA Regional Championships, narrowly missing all-district honors in her freshman season. Ekemo is in excellent position to have a breakout sophomore season.
Joining the veterans will be an outstanding recruiting class that features the Virginia AAA state cross country champion, Natalie Sherbak, a Virginia Beach native. In addition, Heather Fisher of Herndon, Va., will join the Hokies. Fisher led Herndon to the Virginia AAA state championship. Tech also landed top recruit, Jessica Fanning (Charlottesville, Va.). Fanning led Western Albemarle to the Virginia AA state championship title. Thomas believes these three athletes can come in and compete at a high level right away. "Plus they're accustomed to winning," said Thomas.
Tina Tremmel (Dossenhem, Germany) will join the team as a newcomer, but provides tremendous experience after winning the German national championship in the steeplechase last year.
This combination of experienced veterans and talented newcomers gives Thomas a team that is solid from the first to seventh runner. This depth is something Thomas admits has been missing the past few years. "Now we have seven runners who can run at a level that can help us immediately," he said.
The men's team is similar to the women's in that talented newcomers will provide the depth that eluded the Hokies last year. Tech returns nearly all members of last year's squad, including Mike Lawson (Foster, R.I.) and Dave Atkiss (Hatfield, Pa.). Lawson earned all-district honors last season, becoming the first Hokie to do so in four years.
Atkiss sat out most of the 2003 season due to injury but should be primed to add much needed veteran leadership to what will be a young squad. Also returning are two of Tech's top freshmen from last season in Duncan Vick and Christian Barlow. Both worked themselves into the Hokies' lineup last year and are expected to contribute at a greater level with the additional collegiate training.
Tech's incoming talent includes two Virginia AAA all-state cross country selections in Midlothian's Billy Berlin and Westfield's James Scheiner. While they may be new to collegiate running, they are certainly accustomed to winning, as Berlin led Midlothian to the 2003 Virginia AAA state championship and was a member of the 2002 and 2003 National Scholastic Invitational champion 4x1,600 meter relay team.
Scheiner (Centreville, Va.) was a member of the 4x800 meter relay team that set the Virginia state record en route to the state title and was also the 2004 Virginia Northern Region 3,200 meter champion at Westfield High School.
The Hokies next meet is on Saturday, Sept. 18. Both teams will travel to in-state and new ACC foe, Virginia, for the UVa. Invitational.
Team Preview
Concord returns 2003 all-conference runners Chris Snell and Daphne Propst. Snell was named WVIAC Freshman of the Year last season and Propst became Concord's first ever All-WVIAC female cross country selection for her 10th place finish at the conference meet. The men's team is also led by Takuya Abe, a 2002 all-conference member and Chris Herron, Concord's strongest runner during the 2002 season.
ETSU is led by Joshua Hicks, Christine Ward and Jennifer Habbestad. Hicks finished 36th at the 2003 Southern Conference Championships and helped guide the men's team to a 14th place finish at the 2003 NCAA South Regional Championships. On the women's side, Ward took 35th place while Habbestad grabbed 37th place at the conference meet.
Liberty's men's team, led by senior Jason Brown, will be looking to capture their seventh cross country championship this season while the Lady Flames strive to dethrone three-peat champion Coastal Carolina with the help of senior Samantha Pelletier.
Longwood University's women's cross country team earned its program's first state title last year. Senior Jessica Walton won the 6K event with her course-record time among the 79 runners. Keith Smith, 2003 all-state honoree, returns for his second year on Longwood's men's squad.
Milligan College of the Appalachian Athletic Conference is led by one NAIA All-American, Megan Lease, and seven NAIA National Championship qualifiers from the 2003 AAC and Region XII Champion team. At the 2003 NAIA National Championships, the Buffaloes finished in 21st place while the Lady Buffs took 22nd place.
The Roanoke College men's cross country team claimed it's first Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship since the 1998 season and their eighth all-time league title last year. Eric Johnson heads up the team this year. Johnson took fourth at the conference meet.
Bridget Tainer and Ashley Eshaghi return to the Maroon's women's team this year. Tainer led the team in four of the team's eight meets during the 2003 season and earned all-conference honors with a 13th place finish at the ODAC meet. Eshaghi also was an all-conference honoree after taking 12th at the conference championships. She was Roanoke's top runner at the state meet and finished second four times.
Justin Kessler of Wayne State's finished 49th at last year's NCAA championships and guided the men's team to a sixth-place finish. Brian Goodwin and Chris Burns from last year's squad join Kessler as the top men's returnees. Melissa Moncoin and Jenni Culbertson will lead the women's team. Both Moncoin and Culbertson finished respectively at the NCAA meet last year.
Tech's Cross Country Course
The Virginia Tech Cross Country Course opened for racing in 1993. The course starts and finishes behind the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. Overall the course traverses 3.1 miles with a 5.0 mile loop for men's competition and passes historical Smithfield Plantation and crosses Stroubles Creek. The course, located in the southwest corner of campus, features rolling terrain through cornfields and densely wooded locations typical of Tech's surrounding environment.
Mike Cox (VT Alumni) set the men's course record time of 24:37.25 at the Hall of Fame Invitational on Oct. 14, 2000. Catherine Berry (East Tennessee State) set the women's course record with a time of 17:26.2 at the Virginia Tech Invitational on Sept. 27, 1997.
A look back at the 2003 Virginia Tech Invitational
The Hokie men kicked off the 2003 season with a first place finish at the Virginia Tech Invitational. The men out-paced second place Christopher Newport University 30-54. Third place was Virginia Military Institute with 66 points and Virginia Commonwealth University grabbed fourth with 71 points.
In the men's race, Tech made a strong showing claiming four top-10 finishes in the six-kilometer race. Leonard Snead claimed third place and Mike D'Amato took eighth place. Virginia Commonwealth's Daniel Ndonju took first place in the men's race with a time of 19:40.12.
The women's team tied Navy for first place with 31 points, but lost the contest on the sixth-runner tiebreaker. Christopher Newport University took third place with 74. Tech's All-American, Marlies Overbeeke, won the women's race. Samantha Ference finished in 10th while Morgan Ekemo took 13th place.