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|  Paul Short Invite: McDougal, Georgetown win Men's titles, Lady Vols overpower Women's field By John Nepolitan September 25, 2004 Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA American Track & Field
On a weekend when the 2004 NCAA cross country season started in
earnest, Josh McDougal, the Georgetown men and Tennessee women
made big statements that they should be making it to the starting line in
Terre Haute in November for the NCAA DI Championships. Meets held
on September 25th are the first that will count towards teams gaining
points for an at-large bid in a hope to make it to the national
championship race. With only 2 teams in each region gaining an
automatic invitation, it is a rare team that can assume they will grab one
of those spots. As a result many invitationals become mini regional or
national meets. By beating those who will gain an automatic birth from
other regions a team can gain points. Teams now travel great distances
to find such meets. On a perfect day for both spectators and athletes
alike would battle over the rolling fast Lehigh Valley course. Men's 8000m Championship 36 teams toed the line for the first race of the day including many of
those ranked in the top 10 of the NCAA Mid Atlantic poll as well as many
others from other areas of the nation and even a few Division II and III
national powers. Lehigh will be the site of the 2005 Mid-Atlantic
Championships, so this also would provide an opportunity for the teams
to get a feel for the course well in advance. From the gun Villanona went directly to the front and took command of
the race with sophomore Bobby Curtis taking control of the race. As the
field swung back toward the crowds at the mile point Curtis and the
Wildcats were still very much in control, and eventual winner Josh
McDougal of Liberty University had worked his way through the mass of
runners to place himself among the leaders. As the runners from Villanova were up front the Georgetown team was
would be moving up slowly but surely throughout the entire race. As the
field passed 2 miles little had changed, but the true racing would begin
during mile 3. When the front runners returned to the 3 mile post, the
group had been reduced to 6 with Andrew Heath of Auburn leading the
way and McDougal, Curtis, Lucas Meyer (Yale), Mike DiDio (St Joseph)
following and Macharia Yuot (Widener, Pa/Sudan), the 2003 DIII runner-
up moving up. From here McDougal, who had already won his first two college outings,
began to make his presence known. "At 2000m I started moving up a
bit. Made a few tests to see if anybody would go with me and felt in
control the whole way. Then (Yuot) came up on me I was not sure who
he was, but I figured he was pretty dangerous. Two miles to go I started
pushing." With about 1000m to go McDougal made his break for home while
going up a small rise. "I looked back and Bobby Curtis was only 10 or
15 meters behind and I knew he has a great kick. So I just picked it up
the last 200m of flat and try to open a gap and the Widener runner just
dropped." Looking totally in control all the way to the finish, McDougal's time of
23:42.53 would establish a new course record (Todd Snyder of
Michigan and Stephen Ondiecki of Mt. St. Mary's had both run 23:44 in
1988). "I could have gone faster earlier I think and could have run 10 -
15 seconds faster if I had to," said McDougal. From here it will be on to Great America then the push for Conference
and a possible NCAA birth for the Liberty runner. "I would really like to
qualify for Nationals. I think I am one of the strong contenders to do that
and maybe even contend for the regional title" While McDougal ran to the individual honors, Georgetown (# 7 in the
nation) and Big East rival Villanova (#13) were locked in a battle as
each team attacked the course in a different ay. Villanova went directly
to the front of the field and took control while the Hoyas of Georgetown
would slowly move up. Passing the milepost, Bobby Curtis and Marc Pelerin were at the point of
the race and the rest of the team was close by. Over the next two miles
the Villanova runners would start to slide back into the field and slowly
the fans saw the Georgetown runners picking up places. At the finish
Georgetown placed 3 runners in the top 20 to pull out a 5-point victory. Women's 6000 Championship The women's race had the same national qualifying implications, but the
race would unfold very differently than then men's race. From the start
the lady Vol's of Tennessee, who were ranked #19 in the USA coming
into the weekend, took control and were never pressed as they ran to a
34 point victory over Villanova. Tennessee surprised coach JJ Clark with their early season form. "It is
still very early, it is a nice surprise. Obviously they ran a little better then
I anticipated. It's good when thing go well. Sometimes you coach and
things don't go as well as you want, but today was a day that things went
along as scheduled." The national rankings are sure to make some drastic changes as the
#19 ranked Lady Vols rolled over the #10 Villanova , #13 Columbia, #
15 Georgetown and #27 Yale. Angela Homan (Auburn) also left little doubt as to the outcome as she
had a lead after the 1st mile that would grow all the way to the finish.
The defending SEC champion was happy with her near course record
performance (Tuula Laitinen of Toledo ran 20:26 in 2000), but was
looking for more from herself and her team. "The race went well, I love this course. It is our first time being here. I
hope to once again win SECs and I hope to do well at regionals and
make it to nationals and I don't want to do it all by myself. I want my team
to get there and so I am hoping we can pull a team together and finish
strong at SECs and do well at regionals and make it to nationals. That is
what cross-country is all about, a team sport not just an individual." Men's Open 8000m Jordan McDougal made it a clean sweep of the men's individual titles by
the McDougal family as he ran to an easy victory in the open men's
8000m race. The Liberty University redshirt freshman took command as
the field approached the milepost and never was pushed as he romped
to his first victory over college competition. The field included open
runners, other redshirts as well as runners not part of the participating
teams top seven who took part in the championship race. Top Finishers College Mens Championship Race (8000m) Mens Championship Team Scores (top 10) - 36 total teams Womens Championship Race (6000m) Womens Championship Team Scores(top 10) 35 total teams
Mens Open Race (8000m) Womens Open Race (6000m)
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