November 11, 2004

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech's cross country teams will compete in the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships hosted by East Carolina University on Saturday, November 13.

The women's six kilometer race will start at 11 a.m. and the men begin their 10k run at 12:15 p.m. Both races will be held at Lake Kristi in Greenville, N.C.

"Our goals for the regional championships are to finish in top-ten as a team on both sides and have three women finish in the top-30 and five men place in the top-60," said head coach Ben Thomas.

"Also we would like to have a couple of runners qualify for the NCAA Championships. Jessica Fanning (Fr., Charlottesville, Va.) has been running well and has a legitimate shot of qualifying. Jessica Morris (Sr., Coatesville, Pa.) has been one place away from qualifying before and David Atkiss (Sr., Hatfield, Pa.) will go after it for sure," stated Thomas.

Forty-four teams from 11 NCAA Division I conferences in the southeast region compete for two team and several individual berths to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Monday, November 22 in Terre Haute, Ind.

Front-runners at this year's regionals include the 2004 ACC winners, No. 5 Duke women and No. 11 N.C. State. Also from the ACC, the No. 8 North Carolina women, tenth-ranked N.C. State women's team and the No. 21 Wake Forest women's squad. All rankings are received from this week's MONDO men's national poll and the FinishLynx women's national poll.

Charlotte from Conference USA, Richmond from the Atlantic 10 Conference and Appalachian State, who took second place in the men's and women's races at the Southern Conference Championships this year will also join Tech and the ACC teams on the course.

Other teams include High Point and Coastal Carolina who were the 2004 Big South Conference champions, nationally-ranked William & Mary who was this year's Colonial Athletic Conference champions and Campbell from the Atlantic Sun Conference.

2004 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Champions Hampton and Norfolk State, Kentucky from the Southeast Conference and Western Kentucky from the Sun Belt Conference are also competing at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships.

Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State and Murray State are slated to compete from the Ohio Valley Conference.

"Virginia Tech is in a great region. The teams are very fast and competitive. I believe our runners will go out and compete to the best of their ability and we will be happy with the outcome. We are just excited by the challenge ahead," concluded Thomas.

VIRGINIA TECH'S REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY

MEN

1970's

Tech's men's team was 12^th in the 1975 NCAA Division I District III/Regional Championships. They dropped to 15^th and 16^th place at the 1976 and 1977 meets.

1980's

The Hokie men started the 80's with an eighth place finish at regionals. In 1983, Tech recorded a 15^th place team finish. They improved to 11^th in the region at the 1984 meet and was ninth in 1985. The men then placed fourth in 1986.

In 1987 Virginia Tech's men's squad won the schools only regional title. Four Hokies, the most in program history, were named to the all-region men's team. All-American Steve Taylor made school history as the highest Tech finisher at regionals with third place and All-American Tony Williams turned in a top-ten performance. After regionals, the men went onto post the schools highest finish, fourth place, at the 1987 NCAA Cross Country Championships.

They then closed out the 1980's with a tenth place finish. Two men earned all-region honors in 1989. Brian Walter took ninth place in the 1989 men's regional championships. His top-ten performance would be the last for the men's squad.

1990's

The men then increased to seventh place in 1992, dropped to eighth place in 1993 but recorded team finishes of fifth place in the 1995 and 1996 regionals. Six Hokie men posted top-25 individual finishes in the 1990 through 1996 regional championships.

In the 1997, 1998 and 1999 regionals they recorded tenth place finishes. Matt Zacharias and Chris Seaton were named to all-region teams during that time.

2000's

The 2000's looked promising for Tech's men's team as they posted ninth place finishes in the 2000-2002 meets. They then dropped six places and finished 15^th at the 2003 NCAA Southeast Regional Championships.

Michael Lawson finished 21^st in the 181-runner field, completing the 10-kilometer course in 30:49.8. Lawson's finish earned him all-region honors, becoming the first Tech runner since 1999.

L.A. Snead followed Lawson, finishing 88^th with a time of 32:40.5. Rounding out Tech's runners were Mike D'Amato in 121^st (33:20.4), Josiah Oliver in 136^th (33:55.4), Christian Barlow in 151^st (34:27.2) and Phil Rogers in 154^th (34:30.0).

NC State won the men's race with 38 points, Kentucky was second, William & Mary took third and Virginia was fourth. Fifth-place went to Clemson, James Madison grabbed sixth-place and Duke followed in seventh place. Wake Forest, North Carolina and Appalachian State were eighth, ninth and tenth.

WOMEN

1980's

The Hokie women competed at the AIAW Division II level before being elevated to an NCAA Division I varsity sport in 1982. Tech's 1981 squad placed fifth at the AIAW Division II National Championships.

The first record of Tech's women's team competing in the NCAA regional championships was in 1983. The Hokies took seventh place. In 1984, they finished in fifth place and then they dropped to eighth place in the 1985 regional championships.

They took 11^th place in 1986 and tenth place in 1987. Two women posted top-25 finishes and were named to the 1987 all-region team.

Their tenth place team finish in 1989 would be the last time the women would place in the top-ten at the region championships until 1997.

1990's

Tech then recorded a 14^th place team finish in 1992 and dramatically fell to 23^rd place at the 1993 regional meet. In 1995, they were 18^th but then dropped back down to finish as the 25^th team at the 1996 NCAA Regional Championships. Only one Hokie recorded a top-25 performance in 1990's. All-region runner Heidi Allen had a seventh place finish in the 1990 race.

The 1997 women's team improved 16 places from the year before and took ninth place in the regional meet. One year later, in 1998, the women dropped back down to 14^th place. In 1999, they grabbed 10^th place to close out the decade. No Hokie women recorded top-25 finishes in the late 1990's.

2000's

The women took 12^th place at the 2000 and 2001 regionals but improved to seventh place in 2002. Stacey Vidt and current Hokie Jessica Morris turned in top-20 times.

At the 2003 regional championships, they finished in sixth place with 179 points behind fifth-place William & Mary (165), fourth-place Duke (158), third-place Wake Forest (79), runner-up NC State (67) and champion North Carolina (52). The Hokie women managed to beat 20 Division I teams from the region and post their highest team finish at regionals in school history.

Tech runner Marlies Overbeeke set school history as being the top Tech finisher in the women's race at regionals in 2003. She clocked 20:20.00 on the six kilometer course to place fifth out of the 188 runner-field. Overbeeke went on to place 30^th at the 2003 NCAA Championships and became Tech's first woman to garner All-America status in cross country.

Morgan Ekemo was Tech's next finisher in 34^th place with a time of 21:14.8. Following Ekemo was Jessica Morris in 42^nd (21:28.2), Kim Milbourn in 50^th (21:37.0), Moriah O'Brien in 51^st (21:39.6), Kristy VanCour in 106^th (23:01.4) and Samantha Ference in 126^th (23.20.5).