Marquette University Athletics
Women's Cross Country Season Preview
9/7/2004 12:00:00āÆAM | Cross Country
The Marquette women?s Cross Country team enters the 2004 season looking for its fifth straight?and final?Conference USA title as well as its fifth straight trip to the NCAA National meet before heading to the BIG EAST Conference for competition in 2005.
?We?ve really enjoyed our time in Conference USA and we have been very successful in the conference. Having won the past four years, we certainly want to go out and win it in the last year in our conference.?
The Golden Eagles will return three All-Conference runners from last season including fifth-year senior Brianna Dahm who took 17th at the 2003 C-USA Championship meet.
?It goes by so quickly and it is hard to believe that Brianna is already a fifth-year senior,? Uhrich said. ?She has had so much success. She has battled some injuries over the past two years that has kind of slowed her progress. We are really excited for her last year.?
Uhrich believes if Dahm stays healthy, she can reach All-American status, something she narrowly missed in 2003 following her overall finish of 45th at the NCAA Championship meet.
Sophomores Heidi Lindeman and junior Jodi Jakubek also were 2003 C-USA All-Conference team members, along with Dahm and sophomore Michaela Courtney, Marquette?s top four runners have plenty of experience and talent to lead the program in 2004.
?Having Michaela, Jodi Jakubek and Heidi Lindeman, two sophomores and a junior, along with Brianna leading the team,? Uhrich said. ?We could be very successful this year and certainly it is encouraging for the future.
We have a lot of good, young runners. With another year under their belt, especially Heidi and Michaela, they will be much more prepared for this year.?
Jakubek was the team MVP in 2003 and was Marquette?s top finisher in five of the six meets she participated. She finished third overall at the 2003 Conference USA Championship meet.
Uhrich has also added some new talent that will give Marquette some added depth.
?Both Kaitlyn Chambers and Cassie Peller have had as much success out of high school as any athletes I have ever recruited. Both of them are very capable of having a similar impact that Heidi and Jodi had their freshman year.?
Uhrich won his sixth C-USA Women?s Cross Country Coach of the Year award in 2003 and led the Golden Eagles to a 22nd place finish at the NCAA Championship meet. The Golden Eagles have made four consecutive trips to the NCAA Cross Country Championships and is one of only 12 teams in the nation to have achieved that feat.
Uhrich doesn?t want to look too far ahead, but knows what is coming. The BIG EAST had three teams?Providence (3rd), Notre Dame (10th) and Villanova (11th)?finish in the top eleven at the 2003 NCAA Championship meet.
One of the toughest conferences in the nation, the BIG EAST will prove to be a test. The 2004 schedule includes a trip to Van Cortlandt Park in New York for the Iona Meet of Champions on Sept. 25. That happens to be the course where the 2005 BIG EAST Championship meet will take place, proving it is never too early to prepare your team.
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