TicketsNov. 11, 2011
CINCINNATI -- The University of Cincinnati men's and women's cross country teams will be in Toledo, Ohio, on Saturday competing in the NCAA Great Lakes Region championship meets. The event serves as the qualifier for the November 21 NCAA national championship meet that will take place in Terre Haute, Ind., at the Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.
This year's meet is being hosted by the University of Toledo at the Ottawa Park Golf Course. The men's 10,000-meter race will go off at 12 noon ET and the women's 6,000-meter race will start at 1:15 p.m. ET. Bill Schnier, who with Susan Seaton coaches the UC cross country squads, noted the course in Toledo may not be as challenging as what the Bearcats are accustomed.
"The course is mostly flat with a few hills," said Schnier. "They are not hills based on the Cincinnati standard of Ravine Street or Clifton Avenue but they will pose some problems in the race. Very frankly we do better when the course is a bit hilly since we train on hills and are never intimidated by them."
The Bearcats last competition was on October 29 when they ran in the Big East Conference championships in Louisville, Ky. The men, led by overall first-place finisher Eric Finan, were eighth and the women were 12th. Finan ran the second fastest time ever on the E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Park 8,000-meter course, finishing in 23:17.7 and besting the second-place finisher by almost 12 seconds. Oliver Book, who has been UC's No. 2 runner in every meet this season, finished 54th, Ethan Baum was 61st, Kevin Fink 63rd and Chase Beckmann 66th. On the women's side, Alison Zukowsky ran a personal-best 6,000-meter time of 21:45.0 to finish 51st, Emily Clay was UC's second runner and finished 59th, Lauren Goodwin was 88th, Jill Glassmeyer 91st and Kaitlyn Meyer 97th.
The Great Lakes Region men's meet is loaded with nationally ranked teams. The top four teams in the Great Lakes Region rankings - all from the Big Ten Conference - appear in the national top 30. Wisconsin is ranked No. 1 in both the national and Great Lakes Region rankings, Indiana is seventh nationally and second regionally, Michigan is 19th nationally and third regionally and Ohio State is 28th nationally and fourth regionally. The Bearcats are ranked 14th in the Great Lakes Region poll.
On the women's side, the Bearcats will arguably be running in an easier meet than the Big East championship they competed in two weeks ago. That meet featured four of the top 10-ranked teams in the nation No. 2 Villanova, No. 5 Providence, No. 7 Georgetown and No. 9 Syracuse). In the Great Lakes Region meet, the highest ranked team is No. 12 Michigan State. Other nationally ranked teams in the Great Lakes include No. 15 Michigan, No. 24 Notre Dame and No. 28 Wisconsin.
"Last year our teams were ninth (men) and 20th (women) out of 33 teams at the Great Lakes Region meet," said Schnier. "This year we are ranked 14th (men) and unranked (women). Our goal is to move up in the 2011 rankings and to better 2010 results."
Wisconsin has won the Great Lakes region men's meet outright five of the last six years and was co-champion the other year. Michigan State has won the women's regional three of the last five years. Wisconsin's men's team and Michigan State's women's team won the Big Ten Conference championships on October 30.
Finan is the defending individual champion from last year's Great Lakes Region meet, when he ran 30:25.4 over the 10,000-meter course at Oakland University's Katke-Cousins Golf Course. He has been the top overall finisher in five of six meets this year and was third overall at the Pre-Nationals Meet on October 16, held on the same course that will host the NCAA national championships.
"Eric was the winner last year and is consequently the highest ranking returnee in this race," said Schnier. "However, Wisconsin is the No. 1 team in the NCAA with returnees who were better than Eric at the NCAA finals last year, so there is no real way to predict this year's outcome. However, I believe Eric is as good as anyone."
Still, Schnier pointed out that the goal for NCAA regionals is to gain qualification for NCAA nationals.
"Eric does not want to over-qualify by putting all his emotion into this race," Schnier said. "It is still a race of qualification to the NCAA finals."