2012 SCAC Women's Cross Country Championship Preview
Story courtesy of the SCAC office:
IRVING, Texas - The University of Dallas hosts the 2012 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Cross Country Championships, Saturday, Oct. 27. Official Site | Course Map
The 2012 SCAC women's cross country championship is the beginning of a new era for the legue. With recent membership changes over the last few years 2012 will be the fourth consecutive year in which there will be a new SCAC women's cross country champion, and no current league member has ever won an SCAC Championship.
Trinity University will be looking to improve on its second place finish from a year ago. The 25th-ranked Tigers will come into the SCAC Championship with first-year head coach Derick Lawrence. Lawrence, however, is no stranger to the SCAC championship as he earned All-SCAC honors with a 12th-place finish at the 2006 championships as a member of DePauw University's men's conference title-winning team. Trinity has seven of the top-11 times in the SCAC this year.
Leading the Tigers will be junior Maddie Murphy. Murphy won SCAC Runner of the Year honors last year after she won the SCAC indivdiual championship with a time of 22:07.90. Murphy posted the third fastest 6K time (22:44.0) in the SCAC this season. Classmate and fellow All-SCAC performer Rosemary Steup returns for the Tigers as well as sophomore Michelle Oberndorf. Oberndorf finished in fifth place at last year's championship meet and is currently 10th (24:05.00) on the SCAC performance list this season.
Colorado College will be looking to improve on its fourth place finish in last year's SCAC championship and figures to be Trinity's toughest competition. Runners from Trinity and Colorado College combined to produce 18 of the 20 fastest times in the league this year. Additionally, the two teams also produced four of the eight SCAC Runners of the Week during the season.
The Colorado College Tigers graduated their two All-SCAC honorees in Maggie Harkins and Devin Nadar. However, Tiger runners posted three of the top nine 6K times during the season. Led by first-year runners Kaitlin Stearns (22:09.00), Erin Morrow (24:00.0) and Jamie Peng (24:01.00), Colorado College figures to be in the hunt for the conference championship.
Southwestern University returns All-SCAC honoree Lilly Duarte. Duarte finished in 12th-place at last year's championship meet (23:07.50) and posted the fourth fastest time (22:57.00) in the conference this season. The Pirates also return Kara Koinis, Jillian Curran, Christina Hadly, Kate Messier, Meg Greenfield, Priscilla Hernandez and Maria Gonzalez from last year's sixth place SCAC finish.
The University of Dallas enters its second SCAC Championship with first year head coach Matt Buchhorn. The Crusaders return Colleen Slattery, Crystal Purcell and Danielle Pajak. The trio all ran in last year's SCAC championship meet and look to improve on their finish from a year ago. Sophomore Mary Jones posted the best time among Dallas runners during the season as she ran a 28:00.64 6K. That time ranks her 35th in the SCAC.
Centenary College prepares for its first-ever SCAC Championship after spending last year as a member of the American Southwest Conference. The Ladies will be competing in their third different conference championship meet in three years. Prior to running in last year's ASC meet, Centenary ran in the Division I Summit League championship in 2010.
The Ladies will be led by senior Julie Hughes (26:37.59) and junior Rachel Olson (26:57.48). At last year's ASC championship meet, Hughes finished 21st with a time of 25:46.22 while Hayley Schneider finished in 32:38.84.
Austin College enters its first SCAC Championship having just started its women's program during the middle of the 2012 season. The Kangaroos will be led by junior Olivia Flaggert, who finished in fifth place at the Centenary Invitational earlier this month. The junior ran a 25:48.70 race. Teammates Carina Parikh, Ashley Fitzpatrick and Jessica Carlson look to provide depth for the Kangaroos.