Cross Country: WVU Places 5th at BIG EAST
October 29, 2004 06:01 PM | General
By Jarrod Sudduth for MSNsportsNET.com
October 29, 2004
BOSTON – The No. 22 West Virginia University women’s cross country team placed fifth out of 12 teams at the BIG EAST championships on Friday, Oct. 29, at Franklin Park in Boston.
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| Megan Metcalfe finished seventh to pace the Mountaineers Friday.
Tim O'Dowd photo |
The top five finishers from each school had their places recorded and added to reach a final point total. No. 2 Providence placed first with 42 points, No. 6 Notre Dame finished second with 67 points, No. 15 Villanova compiled 84 points to finish third, Georgetown placed fourth with 121 points, No. 22 West Virginia came in fifth with 122 points and No. 25 Boston College recorded 134 points to place sixth.
"We lost to Georgetown by one point," said West Virginia coach Jeff Huntoon. "They pulled two girls off of redshirt just to run the conference meet."
Senior Megan Metcalfe was the top Mountaineer finisher for the fifth time this season after placing seventh overall with a time of 20:32. Fellow senior Jennifer Davis finished 17th after registering a time of 21:22.
Sophomore Susan Davis (21:42) and seniors Jennifer Kemp (22:07) and Devon Plesuk (22:29) were the final three Mountaineers to have their places recorded after finishing 25th, 32nd and 41st respectively.
Freshman Nicole Lemal finished 57th in her BIG EAST championship debut after crossing the line with a time of 23:02. Junior Colleen Hughes recorded a time of 23:16 to place 62nd while senior Rachel Carden finished 74th after recording a time of 23:38.
Tara Struyk did not compete in an effort to get completely healthy for regionals.
"She's got a little bit of a strain in her shin and rather than than risk it here we thought we had a chance to do what we did here without her and go to regionals with the goal of trying to finish in the top two and qualify for nationals."
WVU’s fifth place finish was two places higher than a year ago when it placed seventh at Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y.
"The rest of the group ran really well," said Huntoon. "Our third runner was Susan Davis who ran a PR. All in all, we are sick at losing to Georgetown by a point but Georgetown has a tradition of going to nationals so (going to nationals) is common for them and that's what we're trying to get to."
The Mountaineers return to action on Saturday, Nov. 13, when they compete in the NCAA Mideast Regional championships in State College, Pa.
