Posted September 3, 2008

The UW-Platteville cross country teams see their first action at the annual alumni/intrasquad run Saturday at 10 a.m. at Memorial Park as the Pioneers begin building on last season's successes.

The men were 11th and the women 12th in the NCAA Division III national championships.

The women are led by all-conference runners Jessica Scott, Emma Dreis, Alli Tank and Eileen McGuine. UWP was second in the conference race, their best finish ever, and qualified for nationals for the first time as a team.

"We have a very solid women's team," Coach Tom Antczak said. "We return five of our top seven, including our top four, from last year. We're probably one shy right now of guaranteeing a return to nationals, but at this point we're probably pretty sure we can get there."

Should the women make the national competition again, last year's experience should pay off tremendously.

"It's pretty important," Antczak said. "The first time you go there, you don't want to be looking around at who is there. I remember a number of years ago after the first time the University of Minnesota qualified for nationals, the coach said, 'I don't want you looking at people like you want to get their autographs. We're here to do a job.' So definitely you go there the first time, and your eyes are real big, and you're not sure what is going on. We also have women who competed at the state meet, so hopefully that experience will translate."

The men lost four-time all-American Tyler Sigl, who claimed the national individual crown as well as the last three conference and Midwest Regional runs, but return Tony Kilburg, Patrick Melby and Patrick Klein from the national squad.

"We don't have anybody great or super-great, but we have talented guys," Antczak said. "Of the freshmen, this is probably one of the deepest classes, guys who will make an impact in a year or two. We're a very young team, the youngest I've had here. Seventeen of the 32 people trying out are new. I have seven or eight returning lettermen, which is by far the fewest I've had. It will be a growing year. I hope we will grow a lot. Our returners are not only solid runners, but also good team leaders. That's pretty important. You're not sure how freshmen respond to the competition, but with good team leaders, they'll be better off."