Women Third, Men Seventh At Regionals; At-Large Bid Up For Grabs
Senior Frank Eanes will compete in next weekend's NCAA Championships, as will classmate Jennifer Kooser. The question is: Will anyone else join them?

UPDATE, 11-16-08: The Messiah College women’s cross country team will participate in the 2008 Cross Country National Championships as a team, as the NCAA announced the completed 32-team field this afternoon.

Messiah — which finished third at Saturday’s NCAA Mideast Regional event with 174 total points — received one of a total 16 at-large bids. The Falcons’ women were the only at-large team to qualify from the Mideast Regional, as Elizabethtown College (182 total points) did not receive a berth.

That news snapped a two-year streak of the Mideast Regional placing four teams in national competition. The top two teams from each of the country’s eight regionals comprise the championships’ 16 automatic bids.

Messiah’s women will compete in the national championships for the first time as a team since the 1999 season. Senior Jennifer Kooser qualified as an individual regardless — as did classmate Frank Eanes on the men’s side.

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Waynesburg, PA — Seniors Jennifer Kooser and Frank Eanes will be competing in next weekend’s NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships.

They’ll have to wait a while longer before they know if any of their teammates will be joining them.

Messiah’s women’s team finished third and its men’s team seventh at Saturday’s NCAA Mideast Regional meet at Waynesburg College, giving the Falcons’ women a “very good chance” at securing a team berth into the national meet according to head coach Dale Fogelsanger. With the top two teams at each of the nation’s eight regionals securing automatic bids into the national championships, the Falcons’ women must wait until sometime Sunday afternoon to learn if it received one of 16 at-large berths.

With each regional allowed no more than three at-large bids each year, the mathematics would seem to favor Messiah’s chances. Add to that fact that the Mideast Regional has supplied four teams to the national meet in each of the last two years, and the Falcons’ hopes seem even better.

“It’s not a lock, but I think there’s a very good chance,” Fogelsanger said following Saturday’s race. “We had an awesome day today. For the women to finish third and the men to finish seventh is outstanding.”

Eanes and Kooser paced both squads’ efforts, as Eanes finished fourth out of 304 male runners in a time of 25:31 while Kooser finished ninth out of 305 in a 22:42 clip. Those efforts easily moved the duo to the national meet, as the top seven runners unattached from a national-qualifying team advance.

A gap of just 1:31 separated Kooser from Messiah’s next five runners, helping the Falcons’ women’s team to its best regional finish in Fogelsanger’s 15 years at the helm. Freshman Mary Higgins (37th overall, 23:46), classmate Courtney Long (38th overall, 23:49) and junior Inna Potekhina (40th overall, 23:55) all finished with sub 24-minute clips, while junior Erin Rhodes (50th overall, 24:12) and freshman Brooke Airey (68th overall, 24:38) weren’t far behind.

Collectively, Messiah finished with an average time of just 23:41, nearly 10 seconds off its pace on the same course back on Sept. 13.

“Again, we ran as a pack,” Fogelsanger said, “and we worked together. All of our women had great races, but Courtney Long was especially outstanding.”

Messiah’s men boasted an average time of 26:42 on the day, bettering their previous mean of 27:14 set during the regular-season meet on the same terrain. Freshman Tyler Newhook flanked Eanes with a 26:40 time (to finish 39th overall), while junior Peter Shenk (51st overall, 26:58), junior Cory Kaufman (54th overall, 27:01), sophomore Ryan Pastore (76th overall, 27:21), junior Jeff Smeiles (82nd overall, 27:24) and sophomore Taylor Munoz (159th overall, 28:38) rounded off Messiah’s running contingent.

“Ryan Pastore had a great race for our men’s side,” Fogelsanger said. “He went from about our number 10 runner at the start of the year to our number six runner at MACs to our number five runner today. That is great improvement.”

Eanes and Kooser were each named to the All-Region team, as the top 35 runners from each race attain the honor. Three Falcons’ first-year athletes were selected to the Mideast Region All-Freshman Team, as Newhook (third fastest male freshman), Higgins (sixth fastest female) and Long (seventh fastest female) all finished among the top rookies.

Brian Harvey of team champion Carnegie Mellon University won the men’s individual medal, finishing the 8K run in a time of 25:10. Christa Johnson of Ursinus College won the women’s 6K race in a 22:01 clip. Johns Hopkins University captured the women’s team championship.

Messiah’s finishes were major improvements over the past several years, as the men finished 10th last year, 11th in 2006 and 18th in 2005. The Falcons’ women also claimed a 10th-place result in last season’s regional, complementing eighth-place results in both 2006 and 2005. Twenty-four of Messiah’s non-competing members made the nearly four-hour trip to Waynesburg to cheer on their teammates Saturday, a mark that left an indelible impression on the program leader.

“The team support behind the varsity runners was simply awesome,” Fogelsanger said. “That’s really what this program is all about, and it is really neat to see.”

Eanes and Kooser will next compete in the NCAA Championships next Saturday at Hanover College, as the men’s race will begin at 11 a.m. and the women’s race at 12 noon. Fans can check the official NCAA Championship Site for the latest news on at-large team bids. That information will be posted at this site as it becomes known.