Wake Forest Travels to Louisville for 2009 NCAA Southeast Regionals
Cross country teams compete in one of nine regional meets on Saturday

Nov. 13, 2009

The Wake Forest cross country teams will compete on Saturday in the 2009 NCAA Southeast Regionals, hosted by the University of Louisville at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Park in Louisville, Ky. The men's 10-kilometer race will begin at 10 a.m., followed by the women's 6K at 11:15 a.m.

In each the nine NCAA regions, the top-two teams and top-four runners not on a top-two team automatically advance to the 2009 NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 23. Additionally, 13 at-large teams from across the regions will be selected to advance to the championship meet, as announced on Sunday, Nov. 15.

The Southeast Region includes teams from North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Virginia, with approximately 30 teams expected to compete in each race on Saturday. The men's race boasts five nationally-ranked squads: No. 8 William and Mary, No. 16 NC State, No. 19 Virginia, No. 24 Louisville and No. 30 Duke. In the women's event there will be two top-30 teams in No. 15 Duke and No 19 Virginia.

Led by sophomore sisters Anna and Dina Nosenko and junior Marley Burns this season, the women's team looks to improve on last year's 11th-place finish at the Southeast Regionals. The women's team enters Saturday's meet ranked 11th in the region according to the USTFCCCA (U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association) poll. The women's first unit is coming off an eighth-place showing at the ACC Championships on Oct. 31.

Alongside A. Nosenko, D. Nosenko and Burns, redshirt sophomore Kim Vos, redshirt sophomore Caitlin Crawford, freshman Allison Homer and redshirt junior Whitney Curry will travel for Wake Forest.

The longest distance the team has raced in this season is a 6K. In all three 6K meets, Crawford recorded a top-five score for the Deacons. Homer is running for only her second time this season after finishing sixth on the team at the ACCs.

In 2007, the team finished eighth at regionals. Prior to that, the women's team had advanced to the NCAA Championships from 2000-2006.

For the men, freshman Tom Finneran, freshman Garret Drogosch, redshirt senior Jeremy Fisico, freshman Sam Foster, freshman Devin Huizenga, freshman Jake Graham and redshirt junior Keaton Morgan are slated to compete in the first 10K of the season.

Anchored by upperclassmen Fisico and Morgan, who both have experience running the E.P. Sawyer course at the 2007 NCAA Southeast Regionals in Louisville, Ky., the men's team will showcase several young and talented student-athletes who previously have never competed in an official 10K meet. Drogosch has made a very successful transition from high school distance running to collegiate cross country, finishing first for Wake Forest in his last four meets. Also, Foster has immediately impacted the team as a freshman, finishing in the top-four in three of his four meets on the season. In the men's team's last action on Oct. 31, Wake Forest placed ninth at the ACC meet.

Last year, a multitude of runners for the men's team were sidelined by injuries throughout the season. Only three runners raced in regional competition so the team was unable to score. In 2007, the team was ninth, 10th in 2006 and seventh in 2005. The men's team last competed in the NCAA Championships in 2001, with a 19th-overall finish.

Check WakeForestSports.com for the complete race results.