MIAC Favorites to Clash Early at Ele Hansen

In the past two seasons, women's cross country in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has been, by and large, about two teams: Carleton and St. Thomas.

In 2005, Donna Ricks' Carleton squad defended its 2004 MIAC title with a narrow 75-81 win over the Tommies. Last year, St. Thomas turned the tables on the Knights at conference winning 73-92 with a come-from-behind final kilometer of racing. St. Thomas would top Carleton again two weeks later with a 143-147 4th place finish at the NCAA Central Regional. Carleton regained the upper-hand in the very end, finishing 16th at the NCAA Division III Championships compared to the Tommies' 18th.

Between the two teams only a single scorer from 2006 was lost to graduation, so the now-familiar purple versus blue tussle at the forefront of the MIAC field is likely to continue.

And, rather than wait until late-fall to duke it out, the teams will open the season against one-another at the Ele Hansen Invitational on Friday in Carleton's Arboretum. Also competing will be St. Olaf (3rd in the MIAC the last two years), UW - River Falls, and UW - Eau Claire's junior varsity.

St. Thomas coach Joe Sweeney enters the meet looking to keep the early showdown in perspective.

"We pride ourselves in peaking for the big ones," he told DtB, "so we don’t place much emphasis on the early meets. That being said, it will be good to see where we are at. We have had some great battles with both Carleton and St. Olaf through the years, and look forward to seeing how we stack up."

Gone for the Tommie's from last year's conference title-winning squad is 9th placer Jenny Olin. But joining the Tommies' 2006 MIAC top-7 of Katie Theisen (3rd), Kelly Russ (15th), Meghan Mayer (20th), Anna Glowacki (26th), Emma Miller (54th), and Alexandria Johnson (55th) is Anne Iddins who was abroad last fall but finished 3rd in the MIAC steeplechase last spring.

Sweeney also won't be surprised if Julie Anderson and Kalsey Larson to play a role, as well as rookies Allie Metzler from Green Bay, Wisconsin, Raynee DeGrio from Grand Rapids, and Christine Skopec from Iowa City, Iowa.

"We expect to be as good as last year, if not better," he offered. "They had an excellent summer of training, better than any group we have had in recent years. We have slightly better depth compared to last year, which is always nice."

The Knights return all seven runner's from their MIAC top-7, according to the team web-page. Back are: Karen Campbell (8th at MIAC) , Laura Roach (16th), Heather Hoecker (19th), Kate Meyer (24th), Eva Luderowski (25th), Irene Koplinka-Loehr (27th), and Sarah Forzley (31st).

The gun fires at the Ele Hansen Invitational -- and for another season of Knight/Tommie competition -- at 4:30 on Friday.

Update: Carleton coach Donna Ricks got back to us late regarding her team. (We suppose organzing a well-run meet is more important that talking to the media!) She noted that co-captain Karen Campbell and Lindsey Neitmann, a top-7 prospect who missed last season while abroad, will not race for the Knights at Ele Hansen.

Campbell is in the midst of RA training this week -- you've gotta love Division III!