Nov. 20, 2003

The women's cross-country team will travel to Waterloo, Iowa, on Mon., Nov. 24, for the 2003 NCAA National Championships, hosted by the University of Northern Iowa. The Tar Heels have high expectations for the meet after stealing the top three spots to win the regional competition and sealing a third place national ranking.

Senior Shalane Flanagan will once again be a runner to watch as she competes in defense of her 2002 national title. Flanagan has won every race in which she has competed this season and was the first Tar Heel to win a district title in four consecutive years.

The team as a whole also hopes to put out an impressive performance, especially with the depth of its top three runners. Flanagan (19:44) won the regional meet but was trailed by only 16 seconds by runner-up Carol Henry (20:01), a sophomore, and 33 seconds by junior Erin Donohue (20:17). With the same type of solid performance, head coach Michael Whittlesey hopes Carolina will have a high finish at nationals.

"We're expecting to compete hard and as well as we have so far," he said. "If we execute our race plan and compete with the same intensity we have already, we should do very well."

The Tar Heels will compete against 30 other teams, including NC State, the runner-up from the Southeast regional meet. NC State fell 12 points behind Carolina (52) at regionals, with a final score of 64. Duke did not finish in the top two teams to advance to nationals at the district meet; however, the Blue Devils qualified as an at-large team. Carolina, NC State and Duke will represent the Atlantic Coast Conference at the NCAA Championships.

Carolina falls behind Brigham Young (No. 1) and Stanford (No. 2) in the national poll. All three teams won their regional meets.

Last year, the Carolina women's team finished 21st at the national meet. Besides Flanagan, Donohue and junior Jessica Perry are the veterans on this year's team from that meet. Donohue crossed the finish line as the 91st runner with a time of 21:14, while Perry finished in 22:13 in 213th place. Flanagan broke a course record at the meet, held in Terre Haute, Ind., with her time of 19:36.

After a successful season in which the Tar Heels won both the ACC Championship and the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship, Carolina hopes to cap off the year with its performance at the NCAA National Championships.

"The team is very focused right now," said Whittlesey. "We are extremely confident about our preparation and looking forward to the opportunity we have on Monday."

The race will begin at 1:15 eastern time. It will be held at the Irv Warren Memorial Golf Course in Waterloo, Iowa.