November 11, 2006 KUNZ LOOKING TO QUALIFY FOR NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH STRONG SHOWING Men's Results | Women's Results BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Indiana State senior Justin Kunz headlined the Sycamores’ success at the NCAA Great Lake Regional meet hosted by Bowling Green University on Saturday morning. Despite a wet and sloppy course, Kunz raced to an 11th-place finish and will likely qualify as an individual at the NCAA Cross Country Championships hosted by Indiana State on November 20. As a unit, Indiana State’s men finished eighth of 31 teams, while the women finish 15 of 31. The men own bragging rites by placing higher than such teams as Ohio State and Purdue and the women own bragging rites over in-state competition IPFW, Evansville and IUPUI. “We slipped a little bit from last year when we placed 14th,” women’s head coach John Gartland said of his team’s results. “We also placed a little lower than our regional ranking that has been hovering at No. 11.” Seniors Laura Engle and Dani Prince set the pace for the Sycamores as they had all year and finished as the No. 1 and No. 2 runners for ISU. Engle crossed the finish line of the 6k course with a time of 22:32 in 50th-place (48 scored) with Prince close behind in 62nd-place (59 scored) with a mark of 22:43. The women were without Julia Costello (ISU’s No. 5 runner at the MVC Championships) who was hampered with a hamstring injury. Antonio McDaniel returned to the course for the men, finishing as the Sycamores’ fifth runner in his first action since October 14. However, it was Kunz’ 11th-place finish (31:28) that highlighted ISU’s eighth-place finish. “It looks like we finally have broken the jinx of not having an ISU athlete at the Championships we host,” men’s head coach John McNichols said of Kunz’ finish. “Kunz ran a spectacular race and will end up being one of the top individuals coming out of our region.” Official qualifiers will not be announced until Sunday afternoon, but McNichols said it could be safely assumed that the Sycamores will have representation. Kunz would become the first ISU athlete on the men’s side to qualify for the NCAA Championships since Jason Gunn in 2000. All-conference performer Scott Keeney finished as the No. 2 runner for Indiana State with a 36th-place finish, crossing the finish line of the 10k course at 32:09. ISU’s top conference finisher Sean Bowman, finished as the No. 3 runner, placing 46th with a time of 32:21. Wisconsin and Notre Dame secured the NCAA Cross Country Championship automatic team bids on the men’s side, finishing first and second, respectively. Michigan State and Wisconsin picked up the automatic bid on the women’s side with a close one-two finish. Official qualifying results will be available Sunday night as the
countdown begins to the NCAA Championships coming to Terre Haute
on Monday, November 20 at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country
Course.
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