America East Conference will host the 2001 Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships at the University of Maine Cross Country Course in Orono on Saturday October 27. The 5,000-meter women’s championship race will begin at 10 a.m., and the 8,000-meter men’s championship is scheduled to start at 11 a.m.
Boston University has won five-straight women's championships and 10 of the last 11. The Terriers will not have the services of 2000 individual champion Bolpar Vinh, who is hampered by a leg injury. However, several top runners return for the Terriers, including Rachel Felton, Sherida Bird and 1999 America East individual champion Lauren Matthews, who won on the 5,000-meter course in Manchester, Conn. in 17:58.3. University of Vermont sophomore Michelle Palmer, who recently finished second in the New England Championships, is also expected to contend for top individual honors.
Boston University won the 2000 men’s championship at Newark, Delaware, breaking a two-year run by University of New Hampshire. The Wildcats' back-to-back titles in 1998 and 1999 were preceded by a nine-year run by the Terriers (1989-97). Terrier sophomore Jochen Dieckfoss, who ran the ninth-fastest time (25:01.47) in the 13-year history of the championship to earn top individual honors in 2000, is back to pace the Terriers.
The meet is being run at Orono for the third time in conference history. Records could be in jeopardy on Saturday as four of the top eight times in the 13-year history of the America East Men’s Championship, including the record 24:14.2 posted by Boston University’s Karl Rasmussen in 1994, were run at the UMaine course. Two of the top four, and four of the top 10 times in the 12-year history of the America East Women’s Championship were also run here.
The 2001 women's race is being run at 5,000 meters this year after last year’s race mirrored the 2000 NCAA Championship distance at 6,000 meters. America East had run a 5,000-meter women's race from 1989-99.
The UMaine Cross Country Course, which hosted the 1989 and 1994 America East Championships, is also home to the Murray Keatinge Invitational, a nationally-renowned annual collegiate event.
The America East Cross Country Championships are the first of 21 championships for the conference this year.
University at Albany, Binghamton University and Stony Brook University join charter members Boston University, Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern University, and Vermont, as well as University of Hartford, which was admitted in 1983 and earned full membership for the 1985-86 academic year, to form America East. The 2001 America East Cross Country Championship is the first for the conference since Albany, Binghamton and Stony Brook were admitted to membership earlier this year.
Complete results of the 2001 America East Cross Country Championship will be available on the conference's web site at www.americaeast.com.