After three years of failing to qualify for the NCAA Division 1 Championships, the North Carolina women’s cross country team finished 14th in front of more than 5,000 spectators on Monday in Terre Haute, Ind., earning its highest national finish since taking 10th in 2004.
With the NCAA Championships looming in the not-too-distant future, the North Carolina cross country teams stepped closer to qualifying on Saturday. Junior Kendra Schaaf earned All-ACC honors by finishing in the top 14 and led the No. 17 women’s team to a fifth-place finish at the ACC Championships in Boston, Mass., while the No. 25 men’s team finished third.
For North Carolina cross country runner Mariana Lucena, Saturday’s course was a familiar one. With a fourth-place finish out of 208 runners in the 5K, Lucena led the Tar Heel women to a second-place finish in front of her friends and family at the Mountain Dew Invitational in Gainesville, Fla.
On Saturday the men of the UNC cross country team traveled to the LaVern Gibson Championship course to compete in the Indiana State University Pre-Nationals Invitational.
The gear closet: A room with rows upon rows of about 700 pairs of Nike shoes. Prototypes, new models, flats, spikes — all available to the runners on the North Carolina cross country team. Every athlete’s dream. For sophomore Mariana Lucena, the dream manifests itself a little differently. She prefers Asics for her everyday practice runs even though the University provides her with eight or so pairs of Nikes.
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