Nov. 7, 2006
Great Lakes Regional Notes in PDF Format
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Coming off a fourth-place finish at the conference meet, the Miami University men's cross country team travels to the Great Lakes Regional Championship Saturday, Nov. 11 in Bowling Green, Ohio. Led by its top conference finisher Pat Sovacool, Miami faces a field that includes four nationally-ranked teams, most notably No. 1 Wisconsin. The men's 10K race kicks off at 12:15 p.m. at the Mel Brodt Cross Country Course.
LAST TIME OUT - MAC CHAMPIONSHIP (OCT. 28): Sophomore Pat Sovacool finished 26th and was one of three RedHawks to place in the top 30 as Miami finished fourth at the 2006 Mid-American Conference Cross Country Championship. On a rainy and muddy 8K course at Beaver Island State Park, Sovacool paced Miami with a 26th-place time of 28:52. Battling through temperatures in the low 40's and steady winds of 20-30 mph, Sovacool finished two minutes behind race winner Corey Nowitzke of Eastern Michigan (26:52). Freshman Paul Krebs and redshirt freshman Kevin Silver joined Sovacool in the meet's top 30 finishers, as they placed 27th (28:52) and 30th (29:03), respectively.
AND THE AWARD GOES TO: A former conference runner of the week and the 26th-place finisher at the MAC Championship, Miami sophomore Pat Sovacool was one of nine athletes named to the all-MAC academic team. A zoology major with a 3.41 grade-point average, Sovacool was the top Miamian at the conference meet (Oct. 28), placing 26th in 28:52 and helping Miami to a fourth-place finish. Sovacool's top team finish was his second of the year, and during the 2006 season, Sovacool finished in Miami's scoring five at all six meets.
WE'RE GOING STREAKING: With its fourth-place finish at the 2006 conference meet, Miami extended its streak of consecutive top-four MAC finishes to 11. Miami has not finished outside of the MAC's top four was 1995 when it finished sixth, and during head coach Warren Mandrell's tenure, the RedHawks have been the conference champion or runner-up in eight of his 13 seasons. Since 1980, Miami has won six MAC titles and finished among the conference's top three 18-of-26 seasons.
FLASHBACK TO LAST SEASON'S REGIONAL MEET: At last season's Great Lakes Regional, Dan Huling finished fifth and Chris Swisher placed 19th as Miami placed 10th out of 30 teams. Huling clocked in at 31:13, just 22 seconds behind the race winner Brian Olinger of Ohio State, and with his top finish, Huling became the second Miami runner in the past two seasons to individually qualify as an individual for the national meet. At the regional meet, the top two teams from each region plus an additional 13 at-large teams qualify for the national meet, while the top four individual finishers from each region not on a national-qualifying team also earn national bids.
RANKED REDHAWKS: Regionally ranked since the USTFCCCA preseason polls came out, Miami continues to hold its spot among the top 15 schools in the Great Lakes Region. The RedHawks checked in at No. 15 for the week of Oct. 30 and have been regionally ranked in all six polls. After beginning the year ranked seventh, Miami moved down to No. 11 for the weeks of Sept. 25 and Oct. 2, stood at No. 14 on Oct. 10 and moved up one spot to No. 13 on Oct. 17. As traditionally one of the toughest regions in the nation, the Great Lakes region includes four teams ranked in the top 30 nationally: top-ranked Wisconsin, 11th-ranked Michigan, 18th-ranked Notre Dame and 29th-ranked Butler.
WHO'S NUMBER ONE: Over the season's first six races, three different runners have finished as the top Miamians, including sophomore Pat Sovacool at the MAC Championship (Oct. 28). Sovacool has posted a pair of top team finishes at the conference meet and the Penn State Spiked Shoe Invitational (Sept. 23), while junior Michael Veatch has paced the RedHawks three times, placing first at the Miami Invitational, eighth at the All-Ohio and 113th at the Pre-Nationals. In addition to Veatch, sophomore Brad Untrauer was the top Miamian in second place at the season-opening Flyer 5K Challenge (Sept. 2). All three runners also have earned MAC Runner of the Week honors during the 2006 season.
MORE HARDWARE THAN HOME DEPOT: A Miamian has taken home the MAC Runner of the Week award three times this season, with the latest being sophomore Pat Sovacool on Sept. 26. Sovacool earned the award after pacing Miami with a sixth-place finish at the Penn State Spiked Shoe Invitational, joining teammates Brad Untrauer and Michael Veatch as MAC Runners of the Week. Untrauer won the weekly award after finishing second at the season-opening Flyer 5K Challenge, while Veatch earned the honor after winning the Miami Invitational. Miami won three of the seven MAC Runner of the Week awards handed out this season.
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