Women's Pre-Nationals Race Summaries

16 of the top 20 teams in the nation took part in Saturday's Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Indiana.  While #2 Oregon, #7 West Virginia and #10 Arkansas all decided to stay home, those that did compete on the national course put on quite a show.  Easily the top team performance of the day came from #1 Washington, who showed everyone just how tough they'll be the rest of the season.  Individually, North Carolina's Brie Felnagle and FSU's Susan Kuijken showed they were the class of their respective fields, winning individual titles with impressive final 1k finishes.

Women's Blue Race

Race Results: Team / Individual

Brie Felnagle of North Carolina took the women's blue race title (Tim O'Dowd)

Anticipation built throughout the week, as fans of the sport waited and wondered as to just how good was #1 Washington.  Debate has waged this season as to who's better, #1 Washington or #2 Oregon.  With the Ducks staying in their home state for the weekend, it was the Huskies time to shine Saturday, and boy did they ever.

From the gun Washington lept to the front, putting five in the top 15.  The pack remained quite tight early on with Washington's Kendra Schaaf, Villanova's Francis Koons and Michigan State's Nicole Bush leading the way.  At the two mile mark, just over half way, the lead pack consisted of 15 runners, five of which ran for UW, while North Carolina's Brie Felnagle jumped to the front.  The 3k team score had Washington clearly on top with 51 points.

Just after the two mile mark Felnagle and Schaaf started to pull away, with a trail pack of Auburn's Hollie Knight, UW's Christine Babcock and Marie Lawrence, and Bush still within striking distance.  As the runners wrapped around the final loop and into the home stretch, Felnagle pulled away and ran to victory in 20:02, besting runner-up Knight by 11 seconds.

Washington then crossed the line in 3-4-5-8, with Schaaf holding on to third in 20:14, while Babcock, Lawrence and Katie Follett finished in 20:15, 20:17 and 20:20 respectively.  The squad's fifth runner, Anita Campbell, slowed a bit in the final half of the race, but still finished in 16th overall in 20:37.  The 23 second 1-5 split will be hard for any team to beat considering how high Schaaf and Babcock are expected to finish at Nationals.

Villanova had the most surprising team race in the blue field with their second place finish, tallying 126 points.  Bogdana Mimic and Frances Koons placed 13-14 to lead the team.  Minnesota also had a strong showing with 198 points, running their 2-7 runners as a pack most of the way and finishing with a 5 second 2-5 split.

Another surprise came from the poor showing of Stanford.  The powerhouse squad could only manage a seventh place finish, despite running their best top seven.  With top runner Laurynne Chetelat placing 28th, the Cardinal lacked enough firepower up front to really compete for a top five finish.  Coach Jason Dunn's crew must find a solution with Pac-10's only two weeks away.

Women's White Race

Race Results: Team / Individual

Susan Kuijken of Florida State set a new course record (Tim O'Dowd)

 The battle was fierce, and the results kept going back and forth, with the best team race of the day coming between #3 Florida State and #5 Princeton in the white race. 

The two squads used different tactics throughout the race, with FSU placing their top three runners in the top ten very early on, while Princeton used a dominant pack from 15-22 most of the way to make up ground on the Seminoles.  As the two teams crossed the finish line the score found both squads tied with 89 points, but their stories in the last 1k made it so intense.

From the gun a trio of Baylor runners shot to the lead and pulled out the pace.  The trio, clad in green and yellow, led through the 2k mark, until a chase pack of runners swallowed them up and started to push.  At this point a pack of nearly twenty runners packed together, with FSU having three in the top ten, while Princeton had one in the top ten, but their pack trailing just behind in the chase group.

The race stayed much the same until the 5k mark, which saw FSU's Susan Kuijken move from the back of the lead pack to the front and start an impressive push to the finish.  Kuijken looked as if she was going all out, but was smooth and in control, simply crushing the field over the final kilometer.  She crossed the finish line in 19:49, 32 seconds ahead of runner-up Nicole Edwards of Michigan.

From there the team race played out.  FSU had one point up top, but coming into the final straight Princeton's Liz Costello outkicked FSU's Lesley Van Miert to finish fourth with Van Miert placing fifth, both athletes finishing in 20:25.  FSU's Lydia Willemse faded a bit over the final 2k and finished as the team's fifth runner, which hurt the squad up top, while Pilar McShine had a great race to finish eleventh overall as their third runner.

From there Princeton dominated, placing 14, 21, 22, 28 to round out their top five.  As the point tallies came forth, the two squads found they had tied with 89 points a piece.  If the final scoring took into account the sixth runner rule, Princeton would easily win with Jolee Vanleuven placing 32nd, while FSU's Christina Woytalewicz placed 91st.  Initial team scoring had FSU beat Princeton 93-94, but third place finisher Janet Jesang of Western Kentucky didn't count in the team scoring since her squad didn't finish with five scoring runners.

Michigan and Illinois came up big in the team scoring, placing third and fourth respectively.  UM's Edwards had a blazing kick to finish second, while teammate Alyson Kohlmeier placed 15th .  Illinois saw a breakthrough performance from Katie Engel in fourth place, while their top runner Angela Bizzarri ran in her first race of the season and finished 13th overall.  Georgetown tied Illinois for fourth, following the lead of 12th placer Elizabeth Maloy and 27th place Natasha Labeaud.

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