Cross country shines at district meet

Cross country shines at district meet

ATLANTA
November 20, 1998

The Georgia Tech cross country teams traveled to Birmingham, Alabama hoping to rebound from a sub par showing at the ACC Championships. They did just that. The Jacket trailblazers have enjoyed pretty good success at the annual NCAA District IX Meet for the last few years, and last weekend, Tech kept it going.

The men's team finished in sixth position out of 24 teams, and the women's squad placed ninth out of 23 teams. Both teams' top ten finishes were a step up from their seventh place finishes at the ACC Championships on November 2.

"I thought it was better," said coach Alan Drosky. "They bounced back pretty well from the disappointment of the conference meet."

The highlight for the Jackets was the outstanding running of junior Becky Megesi. She ran a personal-best time of 17:35 and placed 10th overall to lead the Lady Jackets. Not only did Megesi earn all-District honors with her performance, but she also qualified for the NCAA Championships, to be held Monday at the University of Kansas. Most impressively, Megesi was in 17th place with a mile left to go on the 5K (3.1 mile) course. But, Drosky was following along with Megesi during the last stretch and was shouting instructions.

"There were some Florida and South Florida runners in front of [Becky]," said Drosky, "but they didn't count." The schools were in first and second place in team standings, so their runners were going to receive automatic bids to the NCAA Championships. Megesi turned on the afterburners and moved forward to 10th position, which, minus the UF and USF runners, was good enough to lock up a trip to Lawrence, Kansas. She continues Tech's stretch of five appearances in the past six years at the NCAA Championships. Megesi is only the second Tech woman to go to nationals.

Senior Judy Johnson finished her Tech career with a time of 18:25 for 39th place. Scoring the third best time for the women's team was junior Tina Frey with a time of 19:10.

The men also turned it on with some great team finishes that pushed Tech up to sixth place. Junior Brad Mills led the Jackets in the 8K race with his time of 32:38, finishing in 26th place. Sophomore teammate Joe Stegall placed 28th with 32:48. Sophomore Todd Gandee chugged to 44th place in 33:13.

The District meet ended a successful season. However, Tech's distance runners won't be dormant for long. All of them run for the Tech track team, and the indoor season starts in the mid-January. By Larry Memberg

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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