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Nov. 13, 2009

NCAA Southeast Region Meet Information

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Charlotte 49ers cross country team travels to Louisville, Ky. this weekend for the NCAA Southeast Region meet on Saturday at 10 a.m. at E.P Tom Sawyer State Park. The Niners will try and qualify runners for the NCAA Championship on Nov. 23 in Terre Haute, Ind. At last year's race two 49ers claimed all-region honors as Amanda Goetschius and Adu Dentamo took home the honors, Charlotte's first since 2005.

Goetschius qualified for the NCAA Championship with her eighth place finish, while Dentamo barely missed out on the national meet finishing 14th at the region meet. This year, Charlotte hopes to qualify multiple runners for the national meet to go along with a strong finish against the region competition.

"We are going to try and get Adu (Dentamo) and Amanda (Goetschius) in those top four spots to guarantee them a spot at nationals," cross country coach Ed Schlichter said. "It will be a dog-fight to get those top individual spots and hopefully they can get top-10 finishes which will almost guarantee them a trip to Terre Haute."

The top four runners from each race automatically qualify for the NCAA Championship, while a finish in the top ten of the race will nearly guarantee a trip to the national race.

The women's squad comes into the race ranked 10th in the Southeast Region in the USTFCCA Region Rankings, while the men are tabbed as 15th in the region.

Last year at the meet, the women's squad finished in ninth place behind Goetschius' eighth-place finish, Keara Thomas' 43rd place and Laura McCary's 80th place finish. Two nationally-ranked squads will be competing in the meet (Duke; 15th, Virginia; 19th) and will serve as tough competition for the Niners in their quest for a high finish.

"Currently we're ranked 10th in the region so we would like to beat our ranking with a top-seven finish and hopefully if we really get at it we can come away with a top-five finish," Schlichter added of the women's expectations. "We want to place well this weekend so that we can start to establish our squad as a top team in the southeast region."

The men finished in 12th place last year behind Dentamo's 14th place finish and Chase Eckard, who claimed 55th place. Charlotte's men face five nationally-ranked teams in their region meet as William & Mary (8th), NC State (16th), Virginia (19th), Louisville (24th) and Duke (30th) all come into the race ranked.

"With our men ranked 15th, we really want to finish above our seed and move towards a top-ten finish."

The women will run a 6000m race and is only the second time this season that the women have run that length with the previous race coming at the NCAA Pre-Nationals. Charlotte's men will run a 10,000m race and will be the first race of that length this season.

"Our student-athletes should be prepared for the extra-length in both of their races because our base training and workouts have them ready for a longer race," stated Schlichter of the extended race length.

Charlotte's best individual finish on the women's squad was a sixth place finish by Molly Kerin (1995) and Kelly Travis (1999), while the top finish on the men's side came in 1999 when Kenneth Svendsen finished ninth in the southeast region.

The men's 10,000m race will begin at 10 a.m. with the women's 6,000m race beginning at 11:15 a.m.