Saturday sprinkled with surprises for runners
By Rich Cooper
Staff Reporter
NORMAN, Okla. —■ Hallow
een was a day full of surprises for
Nebraska cross country coach Jay
Dirksen.
First, Nebraska women’s cross
country runner Sam Resh finished
second to lead the Comhuskers to a
second-place finish behind Colo
rado at the Big Eight Cross Country
Championships.
Then, Dirksen’s No. 6-ranked
men’s team was upset by No. 8
Iowa State. The Cyclones finished
with 47 points. Nebraska finished
with 51. Colorado finished third
with 92 points, followed by Kansas
and Kansas State with 115 points
each, Oklahoma with 142 points,
Oklahoma State with 155, and
Missouri with 177.
Dirksen said the weather played
a major role in the loss. In 75
degree weather, winds whipped at
25 mph.
“We’re the type of team that
doesn’t go out real hard but we
move through the pack later in the
race,” Dirksen said. “And because
of the wind there were a lot of
people up in there that shouldn’t
have been there, and when our guys
wanted to move up they were too
far back and they couldn’t run as
fast late in the race.
“There were a lot of large gaps
between eachgroupofrunncrs,and
with the strong winds it was impos
sible to catch up to those packs.”
Huskers led by seniors
The Huskers, who had three
runners finish in the topeight, were
led by seniors Jean Verster and
Bryan Clark. Verster finished sec
ond and third to Iowa State’s Bar
naba Korir.
Korir, a junior from Eldorei,
Kenya, covered the 10,000-meter
course in 31:59.6. At one time
during the race Korir led the first
pack of runners by as much as 30
seconds.
Verster, who finished with a
time of 32:09.5, challenged Korir
during the race ’s first4,000meters,
but fell off the pace during the
race’s final 6,000 meters.
Warm weather sickening
Verster said he attributed the
drop to the heat. He said at one
point in the race, the warm weather
caused him to feel sick.
“I felt really good the first 4,500
meters, but when Korir started to
pull away, my body just couldn’t
take the fast pace anymore,” Ver
ster said. ‘‘Korir is used to running
in the heat because where he comes
from is a very warm climate.
‘‘When I dropped back to ninth
I really felt like my head was going
to burst because the heat was get
ting to me.”
Verster, who fell as far back as
ninth, showed his speed during the
race’s last 1,500 meters by finish
ing second.
Dirksen said it took a lot for
Verster to come back.
“Jean showed a lot of guts after
falling back to ninth,” Dirksen
said. “I knew he could come back
because he has so much natural
speed.”
Iowa State runs better
Dirk sen said Iowa State won the
championship because their five
runners ran better then Nebraska’s
runners. All five Cyclone runners
finished in the top 20, and Ne
braska placed four. Jody Fischer,
Nebraska’s No. 5 runner, finished
24th.
Iowa State coach Bill Bcrgan
said he thought Nebraska had the
edge going into the meet because
of their experience.
“I really thought Nebraska
would win the meet because of
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their experience, and that really
concerned me,” Bergan said. “But
our guys were confident, more then
I was, and they really wanted to
win.”
Dirksen said although the Husk
ers didn’t run a bad race, they
didn’t run well enough to win.
“There were some guys on the
team today who just didn’t run the
kind of race they’re capable of, “
Dirksen said. “Our first four run
ners ran a great race, but Jody
Fischer, Our No. 5 runner, didn’t
have a good race.”
“And he really feels bad about
it, but we either win as a team or
lose as a team, and I don’t blame
him for what happened,” he said.
Championship Nov. 14
Dirksen said Fischer will come
back in Nebraska’s next meet be
cause he’ll have something to
prove. The Huskers will travel to
Columbia, Mo., Nov. 14 for the
Region Five cross country champi
onship.
“Last year, Jody didn’t run well
at this meet and he came back and
did a great job at districts,” Dirksen
said. “I suspect he will come back
with fire in his eyes in two weeks
because he’ll have something to
prove.”
Dirksen said he was pleased
with the second- and third- place
finishes of Clark and Verster. He
said he is looking forward to the
Huskers’ next meet because Ne
braska traditionally runs better at
districts.
Team unhappy
Clark, Nebraska’s team cap
tain, said the team is unhappy with
its second-place finish because it
didn’t run the race it was capable
of.
“We should’ve won, 1 think
we’re still the best team in the
conference. We just didn’t prove
it,” Clark said. “The pace of the
race was exactly what we as a team
didn’t want; we ran very slow into
the wind while everybody else ran
fast
“We’re the type of team that
likes to run a good hard 10k (kilo
meter) race. Today’s race was
shorter with periods of rest in be
tween and surges in the wind.”
The Huskers let Iowa State
control the tempo of the race,
Verster said.
“Iowa State used the wind to
their advantage,” he said. “They
have a lot of middle distance run
ners, so they would slow down
when they were running against the
wind and speed up when they were
with the wind.
“We should have taken control
of the race right at the start, but
something like this is going to help
us in two weeks because I think
we’re better then Iowa State.”
Dirksen said he was a little sur
prised the women’s team wasn’t
challenged more by Kansas State,
the third-place team.
Women finish second
The Husker women fimsWu
second to Colorado with 57 points.
Kansas State placed third with 70
points, followed by Iowa State, 98;
Missouri, 118; Oklahoma State,
125; Oklahoma, 184; and Kansas,
199.
Oklahoma State’s Jackie
Goodman was the individual
champion as she covered the
5,000-meter course in 16:57.9. It
was the fourth consecutive year a
Cowgirl runner has won the indi
vidual championship. Christine
McMiken had held the title for the
last three years.
Resh, a junior from Shelton,
was in position to win the race with
800 meters to go, but Goodman
pulled away and opened up a 15
second lead.
Dirksen said he told Resh not to
chase Goodman because he didn’t
think she could stay with the
sophomore from Nelson, New
Zealand.
Nebraska placed three runners
in the top 10. Resh finished second
with a time of 17:15.6, and sopho
mores Juliet Prowse and Michele
Marthaler finished fifth and ninth
with times of 17:38.6 and 18:00.
Women’s race ‘fantastic’
Dirksen said all five of
Nebraska’s women’s runners ran a
great race.
“The women ran a fantastic
race, probably the best of the sea
son,” Dirksen said. “If they run like
that in two weeks they will stand a
good chance of going to the NCAA
Championships.”
Dirksen said this year’s team
has improved quite a bit since the
beginning of the season.
“I think we’re getting maxi
mum efforts from everybody on
this year’s team,” Dirksen said.
“And with everybody coming back
next year we are going to be pretty
good. Both Sam and Juliet should
be even better next year.”
Winds slow times
He said the wind made the times
in both the men’s and women’s
races a lot slower.
“Traditionally the Big Eight
Conference is one of the toughest
conferences in the country,”
Dirksen said. “If a team does well
in the conference meet, then
they’re going to do well on the
national level. Everybody in the
country is going to look at the times
and wonder what happened.”
Dirksen said now that both his
teams have the talent to contend for
See DIRKSEN on 11
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