Oct. 30, 2009

CARY, N.C. - The parallels for the Maryland men's and women's cross country teams are notable.

Each team is led by an outstanding lead runner having a wonderful season. Each team's lead runner took the last event off two weeks ago, choosing to continue training through to this weekend. And each team is looking for its third, fourth and fifth runners to pack as close to the front as possible to give the Terps a chance to finish well.

Indeed, the teams are similar as Maryland heads into Saturday's Atlantic Coast Conference Championships at Cary, N.C. They will run on a familiar course, as the Terrapins have covered the WakeMed Soccer Park Course twice already this season.

The 8-kilometer men's race will start at 9:30 a.m., with the women's 6-K event starting at 10:30 a.m.

For the men, Alex Lundy has been at the front of the pack much of the season. He has two individual wins, placing first at the UMES Lid-Lifter and at the Great American XC Festival in October, run on the same course in Cary.

"We want to follow up on last year's results when we had a couple breakthroughs," said head coach Andrew Valmon. "Alex is our leader and he should be able to go out and put himself in a good position. We have to follow up from there.

"Alex is a focused student-athlete who is really in tune with his body. He knows when he's ready to run and I think now, he's ready."

Last season, Lundy became the first Terrapin in recent memory to qualify as an individual for the NCAA Nationals. He's used that achievement as a springboard to have an outstanding 2009.

In addition, the Terrapins tied for sixth last season at the ACC meet, posting their best team finish in 18 years.

A solid group of other runners has emerged this season who will push Lundy along. Seniors Mike Cator and Ben Diestel have been running well, as have junior newcomers Kyle Gaffney and Greg Jubb. Jubb was Maryland's top finisher two weeks ago at a meet in Virginia.

Senior Kevin Gahr, juniors Drew Abernathy and Dan Fishbein and freshman Craig Morgan will also run for the Terps in the championships.

Distance coach Desmond Dunham said that Lundy's strength is one of his greatest assets. As the parallels between the men's and women's teams continue, he also said the same of the women's top runner this season Kristin Reed.

A Terrapin senior, Reed also has a pair of individual victories this season and her other finish was a third. She has led the Terps to the line in every event in which she's competed, and was either first or second on the team last year also.

"Kristin is having a monster season so far," said Valmon. "The pack on the women's side has been closer than it's been. It's been a plus that we didn't lose anyone from last year's team and we've brought in some new talent. The key for the women is to keep that 1-5 split very small."

Helping do just that is a group of upperclassmen that have run together for a long time. Christina Nelson, Lindsay Ritchings and Erin Matyus are seniors who will run their final ACC Championship. They are joined by juniors Ashley Campbell, Andrea Rothschild, Angeli Sivaraman and Halsey Sinclair, who transferred to College Park this season.

They will be joined in the lineup by sophomore Ashley Cromartie and freshman Julie Fricke, who is having a stellar first season as a Terrapin.

The Terrapin women finished ninth at the ACCs a year ago.

As is normally the case with the Atlantic Coast Conference, the league has some strong teams ranked among the best in the nation.

On the men's side, Virginia enters the championship as the ACC's top team in the national rankings, coming in 12th. Florida State is 21st, Duke is 26th and NC State ranks 30th in the latest USTFCCCA poll.

Florida State is ranked sixth on the women's side, followed by Virginia (11th), Duke (16th) and North Carolina (28th).

The Virginia men and Florida State women won last year's team titles at the ACC Championships run in Chapel Hill, N.C.