Nov. 20, 2000
AMES, Iowa - Led by a fifth-place school-record finish by junior Lisa Aguilera, the fifth-ranked Arizona State women's cross country team recorded its best-ever national finish, placing sixth out of 31 teams at the NCAA Championships hosted by Iowa State in Ames, Iowa Monday.
The Sun Devils battled 17-degree weather and a sub-zero wind chill factor to put together their best NCAA finish in school history in their third consecutive trip to nationals under head coach Walt Drenth. ASU improved six spots from last year's 12th-place finish recorded in Bloomington, Ind.
"I'm really pleased with the progress we've made, placing 23rd in 1998 to 12th last year and cutting that number in half this year, without one of our best runners in Kelly MacDonald who is redshirting," Drenth said. "Everyone on the team made great progress in a lot of respects. These weather conditions were severe and difficult on anyone, but the degree of difficulty was greater on us. But we have a tough-minded group of individuals and I'm really proud of them."
With her fifth-place finish, Aguilera continues to pave her way through the Sun Devil record books, becoming just the third ASU woman in school history to earn All-America honors. Aguilera eclipsed the previous high individual finish set by Kelly MacDonald in 1999 (36th). MacDonald and Priscilla Hein (39th, 1998) were the previous Sun Devils to earn All-America honors.
"I was thrilled with Lisa's run," Drenth said. "She set the pace right away and went right out there to show how we were going to run."
Also lifting the Sun Devils to a record day on the cross country course was redshirt freshman Cynthia Atencio, who placed 46th with a time of 21:33.2, the sixth-best finish ever by an ASU woman in the NCAA Championships. Senior Mary Duerbeck, running in her last collegiate meet, crossed the finish line just behind Atencio, in 51st place (21:34.3).
Rounding out Sun Devil harriers were junior Brianna Torres (114th, 22:05.5), senior Colleen Burke (142, 22:19.5), redshirt freshman Beth Martin (203rd, 22:57.7) and junior Kristin McFerron (210th, 23:03.5).
Colorado captured the NCAA Championship title, bolstered by individual champion Kara Wheeler, who won the race in 20:30.5. BYU finished second, Stanford took third, Boston College finished fourth, and Georgetown placed fifth.
WOMEN'S 6K -Team Finishes
1. Colorado, 117 pts, 2. Brigham Young, 167, 3. Stanford, 198, 4. Boston College, 214, 5. Georgetown, 247, 6. Arizona State, 266, 7. Yale, 285, 8. Wisconsin, 298, 9. Providence, 310, 10. Kansas State, 325, 11. North Carolina State, 336, 12. North Carolina, 338, 13. Arkansas, 365, 14. Michigan, 381, 15. Brown, 405, 16. Missouri, 414, 17. Colorado State, 437, 18. Texas A&M, 447, 19. Arizona, 476, 20. Villanova, 482, 21. West Virginia, 491, 22. Weber State, 505, 23. Washington, 521, 24. Duke, 539, 539, 25. Columbia, 560, 26. Minnesota, 573, 27. Marquette, 589, 28. Oregon, 619, 29. Wake Forest, 651, 30. South Florida, 682, 31. Georgia Tech, 742.
WOMEN -ASU Individuals (6K)
5. Lisa Aguilera 20:46.3
46. Cynthia Atencio 21:33.2
51. Mary Duerbeck 21:34.3
114. Brianna Torres 22:05.5
142. Colleen Burke 22:19.5
203. Beth Martin 22:57.7
210. Kristin McFerron 23:03.5