{"id":49226,"date":"2011-10-28T14:38:59","date_gmt":"2011-10-28T18:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=49226"},"modified":"2011-11-07T10:34:29","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T14:34:29","slug":"cross-country-teams-ready-for-big-east-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/10\/cross-country-teams-ready-for-big-east-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross Country Teams Ready for Big East Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update Oct. 31: Lauren Sara \u201914 (CLAS) finished in seventh place out of 138 runners for the women Huskies, and Nick Aguila \u201913 (CLAS) finished 43rd out of 123 runners for the men in the 2011 Big East Cross Country Championships over the weekend in Louisville. The women\u2019s cross country team took seventh place overall and the men\u2019s team finished 10th in the team standings.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Husky cross country teams are hitting their stride as they head this weekend to the Big East Championships in Louisville. The men\u2019s team won its first New England Championship in 42 years on Oct. 8 in Boston, and 10 days later the women\u2019s team earned its first-ever national ranking.<\/p>\n

Women<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lauren<\/a>
Lauren Sara '14 (CLAS) of the women's cross country team. (Athletic Communications Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“This is very exciting for our program, and a testament to how far this team has come in just a few short years,” says Andrea Grove-McDonough, women\u2019s cross country head coach, about the team\u2019s national recognition. \u201cI am so happy for the team and for what this will mean to them.”<\/p>\n

In addition to trying to gain a national ranking, the women\u2019s team set a goal of wanting to finish in front of nationally-ranked teams. The Huskies accomplished that goal at the Penn State Nationals, when they finished in second place ahead of No. 20 Penn State and No. 26 Duke.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have going for us this year is we have a tight pack of runners competing, but we have a kid who is capable of scoring low,\u201d says Grove-McDonough, a former All-American distance runner at the University of Minnesota in her fourth year as a Huskies coach and first leading the team. \u201cLauren Sara \u201914 (CLAS) is big time and has All-American potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara broke from the pack during her freshman year in Storrs when she led the Huskies as the team\u2019s top finisher in 2010 at the Big East Championships and the NCAA Northeast Regionals. Earlier this season she was the Female Big East Athlete of the Week, only the second Husky to be so honored, after finishing first at the CCSU Blue Devil Invite.<\/p>\n

\"Shauna<\/a>
Shauna McNiff '13 (CLAS) of the women's cross country team. (Athletic Communications Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grove-McDonough attributes her team\u2019s success this year to the collective strength of the team\u2019s individual members, illustrated by the teamwork of Shauna McNiff \u201913 (CLAS), who in mid-race will provide vocal support for freshman Lindsay Crevoiserat \u201915 (CLAS) as she works through difficulties she may encounter during a race.<\/p>\n

\u201cShauna gets to Lindsay and talks to her,\u201d Grove-McDonough says. \u201cLindsay says that has saved her every time. Lindsay focuses on staying with Shauna and then has a great close.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experienced leadership of upper class team members Heather Wilson \u201912 (CLAS), Brigitte Mania \u201913 (CLAS), Courtney Dinnan \u201912 (ED) and Allison Cooper \u201913 (CLAS) has also provided the women\u2019s cross country team with an advantage during races, she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re much deeper than most teams,\u201d Grove-McDonough says. \u201cEverybody is pretty focused on \u2013 \u2018If I\u2019m taking a leadership role at some point and someone else gets ahead of me at the end, I\u2019ve done my job.\u2019 On any given day it can be someone different. If they all go out together, I only need one of them to hang on for a high finish. \u201d<\/p>\n

Men<\/strong><\/p>\n

Head men\u2019s coach Rich Miller \u201995 (ED) says his cross country team has worked hard throughout the season to challenge themselves during their training sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest keys to this team\u2019s early season success has been the ability of our top runners to improve and push the tempo, and our remaining five runners to keep contact with them or stay close,\u201d Miller says. \u201cThe strength of this team is not in one or two runners, but in the team as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a handful of nationally ranked teams in the Big East, the conference championships will provide an opportunity for the Huskies to make their mark against top competition that includes Georgetown, Providence, Villanova, Syracuse, Notre Dame, and Louisville, all nationally ranked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go in as a team that has developed significantly in a short period of time,\u201d Miller says. \u201cOur goals at the onset of the season were to develop our team running, contend with the top teams in New England to improve on our past Big East performances as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/a>
Nick Aguila '13 of the men's cross country team. (Athletic Communications Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Co-captains Scott Johnson ’12 (CANR) and Nick Aguila ’13 have led the Huskies as the team\u2019s top performers this season. Johnson had a top 15 finish at the New England Championships and Aguila had a top 20 finish. The team\u2019s other top performers include Jordan Magath \u201913 (CLAS), Ryan McGuire \u201914 (CLAS), and Bryan Fowler \u201915 (CLAS).<\/p>\n

Miller says for the Big East Championships the Huskies will boost the team\u2019s strength by adding Joe Clark \u201913 (CLAS), Tim Bennatan \u201913 (CLAS), Alex Bennatan \u201913 (CLAS), and Mike Duprey \u201915 (CLAS) to the competition group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be striving to close the gap and factor these student-athletes into our top five,\u201d says Miller, a four-time All-East performer in the decathlon for the Huskies and in his first season as head coach. \u201cI\u2019ve told the kids that at this level the thing that separates the good from the great is not their physical ability but their mental toughness and preparation. They should be at their best on the day of the race.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Husky cross country teams are hitting their stride as they head this weekend to the Big East Championships in Louisville. (Updated Oct. 31.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":49255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-49226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 20:51:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49226"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49686,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49226\/revisions\/49686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/49255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49226"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=49226"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=49226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}