While many University students were relaxing in Charlottesville last weekend the Virginia cross country team made a long trek all the way up to Minnesota. Both the men's and women's teams competed in the Roy Girak Invitational Saturday. Virginia competed against many nationally ranked Division I teams such as Minnesota, Arizona State and Baylor.
On the men's side, the team upset two prominent teams that are ranked ahead of the Cavaliers. Virginia placed third in the meet, ahead of No. 10 Kansas and No. 20 Arizona State. Virginia came into the meet ranked No. 26 and seems likely to improve upon that ranking after such an excellent performance. The Cavaliers were led by seniors Andrew Dumm, Jan Forester and sophomore Andy Biladeau, who all finished within 14 seconds of each other and within the top 21. Biladeau turned in a stellar performance despite being limited by illness.
"Andy had been very sick a day before the race and still did not feel well on the day of the race," Virginia coach Jason Dunn said. "For him to have that kind of a performance when he was sick and when it was his first race is a very good sign for the future."
The women placed sixth and were led by a standout performance from junior Emily Harrison. Harrison led for much of the race and finished in fifth place.
"Emily Harrison had a breakthrough race," Dunn said. "She was leading for a majority of the race and ran ahead of several all-Americans. She was fearless in her approach and was able to get out there and push the pace."
For the men's team, the results from this meet are particularly satisfying because they were able to upset Kansas and Arizona State. The fact that Virginia placed higher than these two programs bodes extremely well for the future, not only because it proves the Cavaliers have an impressive team, but more importantly because the results from Saturday's meet will give a boost to the team's national tournament chances.
"This meet lets our runners know that we can be very good even without one of our top athletes, Ryan Foster," Dunn said. "This meet has validated a lot of our goals. This is just a beginning point for the season but it certainly lets us be optimistic."
The Cavaliers were able to finish with such a strong showing because of the strategy they employed throughout the race. Virginia's top runners stuck together throughout the race and finished with virtually identical times. The "pack running" strategy paid off and three of Virginia's runners placed in the top 21 out of the 300 athletes who ran in the meet.
"I ran with one of my teammates for over half the race and that really helped," senior Kara Scanlin said. "The course presented a lot of difficulties and it was important to pick up teammates and run with them."
The results achieved by the team this past weekend validate the program's place in the upper echelon of the cross country world. There is no doubt that the team is looking forward to the ACC championship meet next month here in Charlottesville. If the Cavaliers perform like they did last weekend, it should be a long meet for the rest of the teams in the conference.
"We've got some pretty good runners," Dunn said. "We were the first team to have three runners finish on the men's side. If you can put three in the top 20 it's really going to help your score. I wasn't surprised" at the results of the meet.
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