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Sally Kipyego, Julia Lucas, and Arianna Lambie are among the favorites for the 2006 NCAA Cross Country Championships, which will take place Monday, November 20 in Terre Haute, Indiana.
While all the coaches in the men's press conference wanted to talk about the conditional favorite for that race, the only women's coach interested in talking about Stanford's domination this season was their coach, Peter Tegen - and he wanted to downplay it. "The rankings are out the window," said Tegen, whose women received all but one first-place vote across all the polls conducted this season. "We take it as an important race," Tegen continued, "but we don't think about pressure put on our shoulders by anyone else." Stanford's Arianna Lambie echoed her coach, calling Monday's race, "just another race."
Coach Lance Harter of the second-ranked University of Arkansas observed that his squad was mostly young and lacked a front-runner - "Interchangeable parts," he called them. "It remains to be seen if that carries over to a nationals situation. Naiveté will hopefully continue, and we'll try to do what we can with a young crew."
Asked about the conditions, Pre-Nationals winner Julia Lucas observed, "It's real cross country. The course is definitely going to be a factor in the race. Everyone runs the same conditions, so I'm going to be thinking about my competitors more than the course, because if I let go for a second, they will trample me. I know they look sweet here, but..."
Lucas will be thinking about scoring minimal points for her team, as NC State comes in ranked third, but Sally Kipyego is leading a Texas Tech team ranked 13th, and hasn't had a competitor closer than twenty-seven seconds behind all year. Kipyego pointed out that she finished eighth for Kenya as a junior at the 2001 World Cross Country Championships in Ostend, which featured some of the muddiest World Cross conditions in recent memory.
Posted by Parker Morse at 6:40 p.m. | Tags: 2006 NCAA Cross Country, Event Previews
GTF commented, on November 23, 2006 at 9:43 p.m.:
Stanford women SHOULD be considered prohibitive favorites, they have the most talent and returned every runner from last year's decisive victory.