Marquette Women's Cross Country Team Finishes 18th at NCAA Championships

Milwaukee-- The Conference USA Champion Marquette women's cross country team finished 18th today at the NCAA Division I Nationals race held at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind.

Senior runner Jessie Swan (West Allis, Wis.) led the way for the Golden Eagles with her 45th place finish out of a field of 216 runners with a time of 20:58.4 in the 6-K competition. Freshman Jodi Jakubek (Ketchikan, Alaska) had her best race of the season, finishing second for Marquette and 75th overall with a 21:15.7 mark. Senior Susan Barth (Bluffton, Ind.) rounded out the top-three with her time of 21:24.4, earning her a 91st place finish.

Coach Dave Uhrich expressed his happiness with the way the team finished and said he is especially pleased with Jakubek's performance.

"That was by far her best race of the year," he said of Jakubek. "And to have a freshman come out and have her best race of the year at nationals is pretty impressive.

"I was really pleased with the way we placed because of the way we ran at regionals and because they didn't even rank us in the top-30. We proved that we're better than that. Our goal was to be in the top-20 and we did that."

Brigham Young took home the first-place finish with 85 points, Stanford, with 113 points was runner-up and Notre Dame received the third-place award with 170 points. Marquette, with 485 points, beat 29th ranked Wisconsin by three points. Wisconsin claimed 19th place. Shalane Flanagan of North Carolina finished first with a time of 19:36.

This is the third-straight year Marquette has competed in the NCAA Championships.

2002 NCAA Division I Women's Team Results 1) Brigham Young, 85 pts., 2) Stanford, 113 pts., 3) Notre Dame, 170 pts., 4) Georgetown, 214 pts., 5) Colorado, 220 pts., 6) Providence 235 pts., 7) Arkansas, 251 pts., 8) Villanova, 256 pts., 9) Wake Forest, 328 pts., 10) Northern Arizona, 33 pts., 11) Columbia, 341 pts., 12) Michigan State, 365 pts., 13) North Carolina State, 404 pts., 14) Indiana, 423 pts., 15) Michigan, 430 pts., 16) Missouri, 437 pts., 17) Duke, 475 pts., 18) Marquette, 485 pts., 19) Wisconsin, 488 pts., 20) Virginia, 510 pts., 21) North Carolina, 517 pts., 22) Texas, 529 pts., 23) Arizona State, 549 pts., 23) William & Mary, 549 pts., 25) UCLA, 568 pts., 25) Penn State, 568 pts., 27) Ball State, 612 pts., 28) Florida State, 657 pts., 28) Tennessee, 657 pts., 30) Northwestern, 661 pts., 31) Washington, 699 pts.

Top Five Women Finishers 1) Shalane Flanagan (North Carolina), 19:36; 2) Alicia Craig (Stanford), 19:48; 3) Lauren Fleshman (Stanford), 19:48.3; 4) Michaela Manova (Brigham Young), 19:49.5; 5) Molly Huddle (Notre Dame), 19:55.7.

Marquette Finishers 45) Jessie Swan, 20:58.4; 75) Jodi Jakubek, 21:15.7; 91) Susan Barth, 21:24.4; 126) Jackie Swan, 21:43 148) Jamie Haro, 21:56.1; 164) Alli Sauer, 22:06.1; 207) Susie Emond, 22:55.4.