Auburn's Angela Homan Wins Sixth Straight Meet at Regionals
Men's Results l Women's Results
November 13, 2004
Angela Homan |
Tuscaloosa, Ala. - The Auburn cross country teams were in action Saturday morning in Tuscaloosa for the NCAA South Regional on the Harry Pritchett Golf Course. Junior Angela Homan extended her winning streak to six as she captured her first regional title.
Homan a native of Delphos, Ohio, took home her second post-season title this season by a two-second advantage in the 6K over Chattanooga's Shannon Wommack. Her time of 20:25.83 was an improvement over her personal best set two weeks ago at the SEC Championships. Homan will continue her season in two weeks in Terre Haute, Ind., at the NCAA Championships where she earned All-American honors last year with a 32nd place finish.
"I can't tell you how I feel right now," Homan commented. "This has been an incredible season. It was a great race today as I had several people running right with me and helping push me to my best. I have to thank my coach and teammates for helping me get to this point. Coach Fox has done a great job with our training and conditioning to get us to this point. I will continue to work hard during the next two weeks as I prepare for the championships in Indiana."
As a team the women came in fifth with 183 points. Tennessee won the meet with 78 points and Georgia took home second with 80. Both teams earn the automatic berth to the NCAA Championships. Senior Kylee Swanson was the Tigers second runner to finish as she placed 18th with a time of 21:43.32. Dawn Morgan came in 30th (22:06.64) and Alicia Torres placed 51st (22:2.64). Also competing for Auburn was Becca Bell, Danielle Keplinger and Megan Karl.
On the men's side, newcomer Chris Walsh continued to make a name for himself as he placed fifth with a time of 29:48.16 to earn an automatic spot at the championships. He becomes the first AU male to qualify for nationals since the 1985 season (Brian Abshire came in 19th at the championships). Chris George was the next finisher for the Tigers, placing 17th in the 10K with a time of 30:22.37.
With 96 points the Auburn men's team came in fourth, improving four places from last season. Florida State won the meet with 59 points and Florida took second. The Tiger defeated 16 other teams, including five SEC teams. Also competing on the men's side for AU was Andrew Heath (21st, 30:35.27), Patrick Philbin (23rd, 30:47.49), David Riddle (30th, 31:06.40), Patrick Mouser (32nd, 31:15.81) and Matt Tillman (35th, 31:18.54).
"I expected our men to finish fourth today," head cross country coach Chris Fox said. "I had hoped we could beat either Georgia or Florida to possibly earn an at-large bid to the championships. I am pleased with the team's overall performance. Chris Walsh continues to amaze me as he improves at each meet. He is the first male to run at the championships in many years for Auburn and I look forward to seeing how he will compete with the best runners in the country. He is just a freshman and it will be exciting to see him run for three more years."
The men's team will have to wait until tomorrow to see if they are one of the 13 teams the NCAA will select to compete at the NCAA Championships. To see a list of these teams - visit http://www.ncaasports.com on Sunday afternoon. For now, the Tigers will have two competitors, Homan and Walsh, at the championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 22.
For complete results from the NCAA South Regional, please visit http://www.rolltide.com and/or http://www.cfpitiming.com