Saturday, October 18, 2008

UW roundup: Korir, Higgins lead Wyoming runners; Cowgirl vb falls

by Wyoming Sports.org

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Mark Korir and Emily Higgins once again led the University of Wyoming cross country teams top Top 10 finishes Saturday at the Pre-Nationals Invitational.

The Cowboys ran in the blue race and finished the 41 team field in 27th place. Korir’s seventh-place finish of 23 minutes, 43 seconds, was the top time by any Mountain West Conference runner at the meet and the second fastest in Wyoming history.

Korir was followed by fellow senior Brett Schuler 159th (out of 273) at 25:23. Redshirt freshman, Greg Miller and sophomore Seth Grossman grouped nicely behind Schuler with times of 25:27 and 25:29 respectively. Freshman Eliud Chirchir rounded out the top five for the Pokes with his time of 25:52.

“Mark ran a very solid race and was out with the lead pack from the get go,” said UW head coach Randy Cole. “Our guys are right there, they need to step it up just a bit and that may mean just 20 seconds or so in order for us to make some noise at conference in two weeks.”

For the Cowgirls, Higgins set the pace with her sixth-place finish and time of 21:42 in the 6k open race. Higgins was followed by sophomore Alysha Davis at 15th in 21:58.

Sophomore Emily Byra and junior Erin Heffron ran together and finished in 44th and 47th with times of 22:36 and 22:38 respectively. Irene Masai and McKynzie Maher rounded out the field for the Cowgirls with times of 23:24 and 23:54 respectively.

“I felt like the women really gained some race experience and also gain some much needed confidence heading into the conference meet,” said Cole. “They ran very well, each Cowgirl set their own personal best today in this very exciting meet.”

The Cowgirls and Cowboys will return to action in two weeks at the MWC Championships in San Diego, where they finished fifth and fourth respectively in last year's race.

Cowgirls fall to UNLV in three sets

LAS VEGAS -- The Wyoming Cowgirl volleyball team fell in a tough three-set match to UNLV on Saturday 25-23, 25-19 and 25-23.

The loss dropped the Cowgirls to (3-14 overall and 2-6 in the Mountain West Conference.

“We are continuing to compete hard as a team,” said UW head coach Carrie Yerty. “I felt that Jenna Arneson had a nice weekend overall. We just need to get back in the gym and work on things to keep improving.”

Arneson led the Cowgirls with 13 kills, while hitting .391 (13-4-23). She was followed by sophomores JennaRae Jester and Lauren Whitney with eight kills each. Senior libero Carissa Lee led the way with eight digs. The Cowgirls hit .306 (44-10-111) for the match and had five total team blocks.

The Rebels were led by Erin Greenwood who recorded 19 kills, five digs and a .567 (19-2-30) hitting percentage. Cursty Jackson had 14 kills followed by Sara Nehf with 12. UNLV hit .412 (59-12-114) for the match and had 53 digs.

Wyoming returns home Friday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Colorado State.

No comments: