New faces, same success for cross country team

By DAVID NORRIE
Published September 26, 2006

TAMPA - The Spartans cross country team will race Saturday in the Pre-Nationals meet in Pensacola on the same course where the Division II national championships will be held in November.

The meet should provide a good measuring stick for a Spartans women's team that is young but full of potential. Having graduated the most decorated runner in school history, three-time Sunshine State Conference Runner of the Year Allison Macsas, as well as a handful of other seniors, coach Jarrett Slaven figured 2006 might be a rebuilding year.

But after taking first, second and third place, respectively, in their first three events, that outlook is being reevaluated.

"I thought we may be a little down coming into this year having graduated so many seniors," Slaven said. "But then the past recruiting season was one of our best ever. We saw our kids out on the local trails early before the season and it gave (assistant coach) Dror (Vaknin) and I new blood and made us ready to come back."

At the Mountain Dew Invite hosted by the University of Florida on Sept. 16, Tampa finished third among 20 teams, behind Florida and Florida International.

Three freshmen ran personal records. Paige Williams ran the 5-kilometer in 18:34.51, finishing 20th overall. She was followed by Alysha Duffy (40th, 19:13.39) and Michelle Gabrielle (51st, 19:23.63).

Laura Woznicki, one of only three juniors on the team, turned in an eighth-place finish (17:54.80) to lead the team.

Slaven credits his newcomers' successful transition from high school to college to a strong offseason program. After encouraging them to take a short break following their last prep race, he outlined workouts for them to follow in preparation for the upcoming year.

He says they came in "gung-ho" and adapted quickly.

"We were a little surprised they came in so strong," Slaven said. "They're competitive and they feed off each other. It's still early in the season, I figure if we can improve each girl's time by 10 to 15 seconds and stay away from injury, then we have the potential to get back to nationals."

VOLLEYBALL: It has been a season of milestones thus far for the Spartans.

Coach Chris Catanach went into last week's South Florida road trip against three-time Division II champion Barry as one of only four D-II coaches with 700 career wins. In that match, senior Stephanie Rivera recorded her 1,000th career kill, becoming only the 12th Spartan to reach that number.

More importantly, top-ranked Tampa swept all three SSC opponents (Nova Southeastern, Barry, Lynn) on the road trip, improving to 17-0, the team's best start since 1988 when it won its first 22.

SOCCER: The Spartan women extended their home unbeaten streak to 26 games with a 6-1 win Sunday over Florida Tech. Shelby Kuni, named SSC offensive player of the week the following day, recorded her third hat trick of the season as the Spartans improved to 8-1 (3-0 in SSC).

Defender Malana Winskas earned the league's defensive player of the week honor after scoring the winning goal in a 2-1 double-overtime win Sept. 19 against Saint Leo.

Tampa's men, meantime, begin a three-game homestand Wednesday after playing five of their previous six on the road.

The Spartans have lost by one goal in three of their past four matches to fall to 5-5 (1-3 in SSC). But the team can climb back to .500 in conference play with matches this week against Florida Tech (Wednesday) and Eckerd (Saturday), the only two teams below UT in the SSC standings.

[Last modified September 26, 2006, 01:43:47]