University of Massachusets Athletics
WXC Gears Up For Atlantic 10 Championships
October 28, 2009 | Women's Cross Country
Oct. 28, 2009
AMHERST, Mass. - The UMass women's cross country team will head to St. Louis, Mo. this Saturday to compete in the Atlantic 10 Championships. Historically, the Minutewomen have done well at the conference meet, including a league record five straight titles from 1995 to 1999. At last year's competition the squad took 7th place out of 14 teams, and in 2007 they finished in 6th place out of 14 teams. With the emergence of freshman sparkplug Courtney Baldwin, the squad will look to improve upon their past performances at this Saturday's meet.
At last year's race, redshirt junior co-captain Shiyi Zan and sophomore Karen Roa received Atlantic 10 All-Conference honors for their performances. Zan led UMass with a time of 18:18 and an eighth place finish overall. Coming in second for the Minutewomen was Karen Roa, who crossed at 18:43. Roa took 15th place overall out of 139 runners.
The Minutewomen have been running well as of late and will look to continue the trend. UMass grabbed a fourth place finish out of 24 teams at the Albany Invitational two weeks ago, and a 14th place finish out of 49 teams at the New England Championships. With the return of Shiyi Zan and the surprise contributions from freshman Courtney Baldwin, UMass will have a great opportunity to succeed at this weekend's meet. The squad will head into the race with two weeks of rest behind them, and will be ready for a solid showing.
The event will be held on Saturday, Oct. 31 in St. Louis, Mo. The women's race is set to begin at 10 a.m.