AU Women’s Cross Country Team, Nate Iler Qualify for National Meet
November 6, 2004

By Paul Carmany, AU Sports Information

The Ashland men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in today’s (Nov. 6) NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional Meet in Edwardsville, IL, located near St. Louis. Fortunately, the Eagle teams, coached by Bill Gallagher, had more success in this part of the country than did the Cardinals in the World Series.

The AU women’s squad finished third to advance to the NCAA Division II National Cross Country Meet as a team. Meanwhile, AU senior Nate Iler will compete in the national meet as an individual after a fourth-place finish this afternoon.

Saving their best performance of the season for this all-important meet, the 17th-ranked Ashland women placed three runners in the top 20 to finish third with 113 points. Grand Valley State captured the meet title with 31 points and Northern Michigan was second with 98. Wisconsin-Parkside will be the region’s final representative at the national meet, taking fourth place with 163 points.

Junior Erin Stauffer led the AU pack, finishing ninth overall in a time of 22:43 on the 6K course. Miranda Forgac was next, placing 17th in 23:01, while Jessica Fleming was two spots behind her in 23:04. Kristin Ricketts (32nd place, 23:29) and Colleen Wurzer (36th, 23:34) finished up Ashland’s top five. The final two Eagle runners were Lisa Nell (47th, 24:04) and Mara Albright (83rd, 24:51).

On the men’s side, AU finished sixth place with 173 points, three spots away from qualifying for the national meet. Grand Valley State won the meet with 65 points, Hillsdale was second with 86 and Wayne State took third with 105.

Individually, Iler took fourth place with a time of 32:09, eight seconds behind individual champion Nate Peck of Grand Valley State on the 10K course. Evan Thomas finished 13th in a time of 32:49, and his fellow sophomore Ryan Wilson was 43rd place in 33:50. Wes Lewis (55th, 34:22) and Mike Schultz (58th, 34:32) were the fourth and fifth finishers, respectively, for AU. Bryan Ropp (61st, 34:39) and Paul Lang (75th, 35:13) rounded out the Ashland team.

The NCAA Division II National Cross Country Meet, hosted by the University of Southern Indiana, will be contested Saturday, Nov. 20 in Evansville, IN.