Cross Country ACCtion: Weekend of October 12-13
Florida State women dominate yet again, take second at NCAA Pre-Nationals; NC State and Virginia men top the field, finishing 3-4.
Sophomore All-American Susan Kuijken ran her best 6K time to lead Florida State to a spectacular second-place finish at the NCAA Pre-National meet.

Sophomore All-American Susan Kuijken ran her best 6K time to lead Florida State to a spectacular second-place finish at the NCAA Pre-National meet.

Oct. 15, 2007

NCAA Pre-Nationals, Terre Haute, Ind.
Boston College: (W)-12th
Clemson: (M)-22nd
Florida State: (M)-14th; (W)-2nd
Georgia Tech: (M)-34th; (W)-22nd
North Carolina: (W)-12th
NC State: (M)-3rd; (W)-10th
Virginia: (M)-4th; (W)-18th

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Behind sophomore All-American Susan Kuijken's best 6k time to date (19:56) Florida State dominated the competition at NCAA Pre-Nationals, finishing second behind No.1-ranked Stanford. Led by senior Mark Buckingham, the Seminole men also had a good performance to finish 14th.

"What the women did today was nothing short of spectacular," said head coach Bob Braman. "Coming in second behind the reigning national champions is just--you can't describe it as anything but spectacular. Susan did exactly what she had to do to win and it was just a real exciting race for the ladies."

Kuijken, who is undefeated this season with three first-place victories, outran her nearest competition by a full five seconds, scoring the first of the Seminoles' 123 points. After tying the defending champs at the race's halfway point, Florida State finished just 21 points behind Stanford. Among the other teams left in the Seminoles' wake were No. 4 Minnesota, No. 7 Rice, No. 9 Michigan State and ACC rivals No. 16 Boston College.


Maryland: (M)-1st; (W)-1st
(Leopard Invitational; Easton, Pa.)

EASTON, Pa. - The University of Maryland men and women both placed first in the team standings at the Leopard Invitational at Lafayette College today.

Senior Meghan Braffet finished first among the women with a time of 20:39.0. She was followed by teammate Erin Matyus, who finished in 21:40.0 and placed 11th and Kristin Reed who finished 13th in 21:45.0. Angeli Sivaraman (21:51.0), Kylynn McKinley (21:52.0) and Lindsay Ritchings (21:56.0) placed 21st, 22nd and 23rd, respectively to round out the top-five for Maryland.

Joe Simpson (16th, 26:37.4) and Kevin Gahr (18th, 26:38.7) also finished in the top-20 for the Terrapins, who finished with 63 team points. American placed second, tallying 90 points and Connecticut finished third with 93.


Duke: (M)-2nd; North Carolina: (M)-4th
(Blue Ridge Open; Boone, N.C.)

BOONE, N.C. - The Duke men's and women's cross country teams competed on Friday, with the men at the Blue Ridge Open in Boone, N.C., and the women at the Penn State Invitational in University Park, Pa. The men placed second out of 20 teams and the women were sixth of 25.

In western North Carolina, freshman Andrew Palumbo led the way for the Blue Devils with a ninth place finish in 24:45. Junior Kevin McDermott placed 16th with a clocking of 25:16. Right behind him was senior captain Chris Spooner in 25:14 for a 21st place finish. Rounding out Duke's top-seven scoring runners was a quartet of freshmen in Joshua Lund (25th place, 25:19), Ryan McDermott (27th, 25:19), Cory Nanni (31st, 25:28) and Isaac Dunkelberger (44th, 25:48).

218 athletes competed at the eight-kilometer Blue Ridge Open. Duke finished second behind Texas with 85 points and coach Norm Ogilvie's season record improved to 30-14.


Duke: (W)-6th
Wake Forest: (M)-10th; (W)-5th
(Penn State Invitational; State College, Pa.)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Senior Caitlin Chrisman and junior Nicole Schappert each posted their fourth straight top-20 finish to lead Wake Forest to a fifth-place showing at the Penn State National Invite Friday afternoon at the Blue/White Golf Course.

Schappert finished the 6k race in a time of 21:33 to finish 14th out of 278 runners. Chrisman was right behind, running a 21:35 to place 16th individually.

Freshmen Chelsea Bolton and Marley Burns and junior Merry Placer rounded out the Demon Deacons' top five, with only eight seconds separating the three.


Virginia Tech: (M)-3rd; (W)-3rd
(Chile Pepper Invitational; Fayetteville, Ark.)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - In the final meet before the postseason, both the men's and women's Virginia Tech cross country teams earned third place at the Chile Pepper Invitational on Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark. The Hokie women earned 130 points and the men registered 162 points in their last competition before the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships.

The No. 19 Hokies finished third out of 41 teams with 130 points in the standings of the 6k women's race, behind runner-up No. 5 Arkansas' 87 points and No. 24 Texas Tech took the event title with 83 points. Tech finished ahead of UC Irvine, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Richmond, Utah and James Madison in the top 10.

The men's team is fifth in the Southeast Region and placed third among 36 teams. Abilene Christian was the runner-up with 74 points and No. 9 Arkansas won its host event with 47 points. Rend Lake College, Texas A&M, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Auburn, Texas Tech, Richmond and LSU rounded out the top 10.


Clemson: (W)-2nd
Miami: (M)-8th; (W)-11th
(Furman Invitational; Greenville, S.C.)

GREENVILLE, S.C. - The women's cross country team raced without one of its top performers, but still managed a runner-up finish at the 35th annual Furman Invitational on Saturday at the university golf course. The Lady Tigers posted 79 points and trailed only Charlotte, who had 60, in the team standings.

Clemson was without the services of freshman Jenna Baker, who was held out due to slight foot soreness. She had been the team's top finisher in three straight meets. With her out of the lineup, a trio of freshmen picked up the slack and scored for Clemson.

"It was a very good day," said Gordon Thomson, second-year distance coach for the Lady Tiger program. "I was happy to see Abby Iselborn step up today. The team score would've been different had Jenna Baker been available. But I was pleased with the way the team asserted itself and got out to a solid start. A lot of progress continues to be made, but there's still work to do as we prepare for ACCs in two weeks."