Cross Country Teams Open the 2002 Season Friday, Aug. 30
8/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Aug. 26, 2002
Air Force Open: The Falcons will run the Air Force Open at Jack's Valley on Friday, Aug. 30. The women's start time is 3:00 while the men will start at 3:30.
Top Returning Women: C2C (Jr.) Brandess Pardue returns to lead the Falcons. Pardue was the 2001 MVP and was the first Falcon female to qualify for the NCAA Division I championships as an individual. C1C (Sr.) Elissa Ballas and C2C Jean Taylor, both of whom have run right with or ahead of Pardue in past seasons, return to give the Falcons a strong top three. C2C Anne Chumlea was a consistent top-five performer for the 2001 Falcons. C2C Kelly McPherson and C3C (So.) Cindy Dawson had outstanding seasons on the track and that improvement should translate to continued improvement in the fall. C2C Stephanie Cornell and C3C Mary Uhler round out the top nine returnees and are both capable of cracking the top five for the Falcons.
Top Returning Men: C2Cs Ben Payne, MWC 10,000 meter outdoor and 5,000 meter indoor champion, and Chris Acs, cross country MVP in 2000, will lead the Falcons in 2002. They finished fifth and ninth, respectively; in the 2001 MWC championships and both are capable of top-three conference finishes in 2002. C1C Jim Blech and C3C Brian Dumm was the sixth and seventh men on the 2001 team and will be counted on to move into the Falcons' top five. Others most likely to fill the void created by graduation include C1Cs Kelly Church and team captain Rudy Taute along with C3Cs Nathan Franz, Thomas Kubler, Derek Storbeck and Abe Wengel. Kubler and Wengel were both in the Falcons' top nine last fall before illness (Kubler) and injury (Wengel) took their toll. Franz and Storbeck exhibited significant potential during the track season so hopefully that success will translate into similar success on the cross country course.
The Falcons will split forces to compete in the Lobo Invitational in Albuquerque (start times are women 10 a.m. and men 10:30 a.m.) and the Colorado College Invitational at North Monument Valley Park in Colorado Springs (men 9 a.m. and women 10 a.m.) on Sept. 14.
