Oct. 4, 1999
CROSS COUNTRY OPTS FOR EXTRA TRAINING
Storyline: The UNLV cross country team has decided not to attend its scheduled meet this weekend at the Long Beach Invitational ... instead, the Rebels will stay home and train another week before hosting the UNLV Invitational on October 16 at Las Vegas? Sunset Park ... it will be UNLV?s last competition before heading to the first-ever Mountain West Conference Championships ... the Rebels will try to improve upon their second place finish in last year?s home meet ... the Rebels? own Angie Fortner won the 1998 UNLV Invitational ... senior Sharlene Downing (Las Vegas, NV/Southern Illinois) had the top individual finish of all UNLV returners at seventh.
Recapping the Sundodger Invitational: Senior Stephanie Davidson (Renton, WA/College of Southern Idaho) again led the team, running an impressive 18:01.0 and finishing 18th overall. Jenni Nelson (Seattle, WA/Univ. of Montana) followed in her usual No. 2 spot, just 20 seconds behind. UNLV got good group running from Katie Barto (Henderson, NV/Green Valley), Kathryn Goetz (Denver, CO/Univ. of Nevada, Reno) and Rhonda Kilfoyle (Las Vegas, NV/Clark), who all finished within six places of each other. Senior Sharlene Downing (Las Vegas, NV/Southern Illinois) made her season debut after missing the first two meets with an injury. She finished in 19:35 and will train on an accelerated pace in order to be ready for the Mountain West Conference Championships to be held in Provo, UT, on Friday, October 29.
Head Coach Karen Dennis: Karen Dennis is in her eighth year overseeing the cross country and track and field program at UNLV. In 1997, she was named by USA Track and Field as the head coach for the women?s national team that will compete in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. She has coached 13 All-Americans since arriving at UNLV and was the 1993 MPSF Coach of the Year.
Quoting Distance Coach Mary Shea: ?We looked good this week, but there is still work to do. We are progressing nicely, and I feel a lot of our runners are right on schedule in terms of where they need to be in preparation for the conference championships.?
