News Releases

Ramblers Ready to Host Cross Country Championships

10/29/2002

Loyola looks to defend both men's and women's titles

November 2, 2002
Montrose Beach, Chicago

Meet Schedule
11:00 am - Women's 5k
12:00 pm - Men's 8k
1:00 pm - Awards ceremony

Teams Competing
Butler, Cleveland State, Detroit, Loyola, UIC, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Green Bay, Wright State, Youngstown State

Directions
From North
Take I-94 south towards Chicago. Get off on Touhy, heading east. Drive to Sheridan Rd. which is the last light before Lake Michigan. Turn right on Sheridan, heading south. Drive 15 blocks and turn left onto Lake Shore Drive. Take Lake Shore Drive to the Montrose exit. Turn left on Montrose heading towards Lake Michigan. Start and finish will be by the Montrose Beach House.
From South
Travel north towards Chicago and get off onto Lake Shore Drive heading north. Stay on Lake Shore Drive until Montrose exit. Turn right, heading east, on Montrose. The course, parking and Beach House will be on your left.
From West
Take I-290 into Chicago and drive east until Lake Shore Drive. Take Lake Shore Drive north until the Montrose exit. Turn right on Montrose, heading east towards Lake Michigan. Course, parking and Beach House will be on left.

Results
Team and individual results will be available at the meet and also online at the Loyola athletics website, www.loyolaramblers.com at 3:00 pm. An announcement at the meet will be made as to the location of the results posting.

New on the Horizon
This is only the second running of the Horizon League Cross Country Championship because the League adopted the new name on June 4, 2001. The conference was formed June 16, 1979 as the Midwestern City Conference with six charter members: Butler, Evansville, Loyola, Oklahoma City, Oral Roberts and Xavier. The MCC, as it became known, remained a City Conference until June 27, 1985 when it changed to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference. The MCC was a solid conference the rest of the 1980?s and throughout the 1990's but the sun set on the MCC in June, 2001 when the Horizon League was established.

Course Records
The course records for Montrose Beach come from the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational which Loyola has hosted for the past 30 seasons. Georgia State's Jenn Feenstra established the women's record in 2001 by finishing the 5k course in 16:59. Henno Haava of Berea College set the course record in 1995 when he covered the course in 23:52.

Women's Championship Preview
Loyola is looking for its third straight title today after winning last year at Montrose Beach and in 2000 at Cofrin Aboretum in Green Bay. The Ramblers are tied with Butler and Notre Dame for the most team championships, with four. Loyola returns five of its top seven runners from last year's League championship, but will have to run well to defend the title. Butler may pose the most significant challenge as the Bulldogs look to reclaim the dominance formed by winning the team title from 1996-99. Butler defeated Loyola at the Great American Cross Country Festival in the only head-to-head showdown between the two squads. UIC tied Loyola at the first meet of the year, but the two Windy City rivals have not faced each other as a full squad since.

Individually, Loyola's Kristyne McGuinn will be looking to defend her title but will have to outlast a pack of runners who want her crown. Kim Hemstreet of Detroit and UIC's Jenni Goebel each were named Athletes of Week three times this season and have to be watched. Amber Gascoigne leads Butler and has a legitimate shot at first place as well as Youngstown State's Emily Schnitkey, Loyola's Colleen Newman and Gascoigne?s teammate, Rebecca Lyne.

Men's Championship Preview
Much like the women's side, Butler and Loyola have dominated the League meet since 1995, allowing no other team to win the title. In fact, since 1997 Butler and Loyola have captured the top two spots at the Championship including last year's tie. This year appears to be no different as Butler enters as the 19th ranked squad in the nation and eighth in the Great Lakes region while Loyola is sixth in the Midwest region. The Bulldogs beat Loyola at the only head-to-head match-up of the two squads when Butler finished third and Loyola 16th in the 25-team field at the Great American Cross Country Festival. UIC beat Loyola in the first meet of the season, but like the women's teams, have not raced against each other since.

In the race for the individual title, Marty Fedmowski of Butler was the only runner to be named Athlete of the Week more than once, however, his best competition may be from his teammate, Mark Tucker. Tucker won the most recent weekly award as he finished ahead of Fedmowski at the Pre-NCAA meet on Oct. 22. Butler has had the top finisher in the last five Championships and should also have Steve Vernon near the front. Loyola's Robert Wade, last year's third-place finisher, will look to end the Bulldogs' winning streak, as will UWM's Steve Saul, UIC's Danny Smith and the Ramblers' Justin Motkowicz.