Four Earn All-Region Honors Women Place 3rd, Men 19th At South/Southeast Region Championships Women's Story

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Hansen, Bissell, Rowe, Wampler Earn All-Region Medals After a week of heavy rains, the sun came out for the NCAA South/Southeast Region Cross Country Championships on the campus of Guilford College. The soggy footing slowed the field down by about a minute compared to the regional preview race four weeks earlier, making Caitlin Masse's (Trinity-Texas) course record run of 22:56 all the more impressive. The Captains came in ranked third in the Regional Polls behind Rhodes and Emory and had their sights squarely set on knocking one of the perennial powers off and earning a first-ever team berth to the National Championships. All three teams had run with tight packs and similar times for their top five, so it seemed that the closest spread from 1-5 might be the determining factor. Rhodes set the tone early placing four runners at the front of the lead pack. Emory had two in the mix and CNU's top four were on their heels. By mid-race, Rhodes' top two filled the everwidening gap between front-runner Masse and the chase group which was led by Rhodes' #3. Elizabeth Bissell (Wyckoff, NJ) and Dira Hansen (Culpeper, VA) were in the middle of the second pack with Brooke Rowe (Yorktown, VA) close behind. Amy Wampler (Spotsylvania, VA) trailed her teammates by another few meters, never quite able to regroup with them, but keeping them in sight. Running for the first time in two and a half weeks, sophomore Jade Zaharoff (Vienna, VA) pushed hard to keep up with the front four, but the soft footing never allowed her to get in to a good rhythm and left her without her usual strong finish. Likewise, Samantha Carter's (West Point, VA) tender ankle took a lot of abuse, though she still held off in-state rival Lynchburg's #6 and the #5 runners from Shenandoah and Mary Washington. In between Zaharoff and Carter, rookie Karen Bumiller (Burke, VA) ran her best race of the season and finished 81st in 26:47. Back at the front of the race, Rhodes finished as powerfully as they started and finished 2-3-4-818 (35) in the team scoring. Emory took the last two spots in the top 10. Bissell had pushed the pace through the last two kilometers and pulled Hansen with her. Hansen had the better kick over the final meters and finished in 24:36 for 16th place (15th in the team scoring) with Bissell just steps behind in 17th (24:38) -- given the course conditions, this was by far Bissell's strongest showing of the 2009 season. Rowe finished three runners later for 19 team points in 24:46 and ahead of Emory's #3 finisher. Wampler crossed the line just behind Emory's #4 (29th, 24:59) and when Emory's #5 finished ten seconds later, their final score tallied 100 points and the Captains' season was over. Zaharoff's 58th place finish (57 team points -- 135 total) sealed CNU's highest finish ever at the Regional Championships with a 20 point cushion over fourth place Lynchburg.

Hansen, Bissell, Rowe, and Wampler matched the 2003 squad's high-water mark of four AllRegion honors. For Wampler it was her fourth time on the podium while Hansen and Bissell earned their second such honors. Jump to Women's Story

Men's Story

Young Men's Squad Races For Future That the Captains' men's team is young is not news. In the pre-race meeting, it was reminded that only one of this year's Regionals squad had run at this level before -- sophomore Will Kirk (Mechanicsville, VA) (fellow soph Corey Lofton (Vienna, VA) was back in his walking boot after racing at Conference). In fact, four of the seven were finishing their first collegiate Cross Country seasons. The focus for the squad was to bring the same effort they showed at Conference to see where they stood against the Region and get a clear read on how far they needed to progress for the 2010 season. Running after the women, the wet course was muddy and treacherous in a few spots -- taking several athletes down more than once and claiming sophomore Josh Bowling's (Crewe, VA) shoe with more than a mile to go -- so times, again, were on average ninety seconds slower than the Quaker Invite Regional Preview. Jeff Ball (Chesapeake, VA) had the strongest start of the bunch and battled valiantly as teammates Raymond Gamache (Burlington, VT) and Bowling caught up and worked their way ahead of him on the second loop of the course. When Bowling lost his shoe, Ball moved back to the #2 slot on the team, keeping Gamache in his sights. Will Kirk locked in to his rhythm early and used it to move steadily up through the field as the miles went by. All four finished well with Gamache first to the line (30:23) ahead of Ball (30:35). Bowling arrived 14 seconds later and Kirk closed in 31:14. Frosh Aaron Zook (Harrisonburg, VA) showed the stress of fighting off a persistent cold and slipped back to team's #5 position (31:54) just ahead of fellow first-year Chris Lyford (Leesburg, VA) (31:59). Scott Teribury (Woodbridge, VA) never quite got in to rhythm and finished another 17 seconds back. The Captains now head back in to base training in preparation for the upcoming Track & Field seasons. A few will compete in the upcoming home opener on December 5th on the Vince Brown Track at the Freeman Center while the rest will point towards January's Maryland Invitational. For complete CNU Results, check out the Results Page Top