Reveille

Issue date: 9/25/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: NWU Sports Information Desk Junior Andrew Laflin starts off one of the first races for the cross-country team. As an experienced runner, Laflin will be seen leading the pack this upcoming season.

Despite winning the Great Plains Athletic Conference Championships for the third straight season and eight of the past nine seasons, winning the NCAA Division III Central Re¬gion anda placing 14th last year at the NCAA Division III National Championships, Head Coach Ted Bulling and the Nebraska Wesleyan University men’s cross country team are looking to con¬tinue their success into the 2008 season.

Leading the way for the Prairie Wolves men this fall will be a host of juniors consisting of Brian Copley, Andrew Laflin, Eric Noel, Logan Watley and Neil Wolford, who combine for five All-GPAC awards in cross-country, 16 All-GPAC awards in indoor track and 14 All-GPAC awards in outdoor track.

Watley was the 2007 Outdoor Track GPAC 1,500 meter Champion as well as the 2008 In¬door Track GPAC Mile Champi¬on, while Copley, Laflin and Watley earned All-Region recognition in 2007 for their top 35 finish at the NCAA Division III Central Region Championships. Fellow junior and All-GPAC runner Kyle Wagner will be away from the team this fall while he spends a semester studying in Japan.

The NWU men have qualified for the NCAA Division III National Championships 11 straight years, which is currently the fifth longest streak in the nation.

The NWU women will look to continue the success they have built over the past two seasons. After qualifying only two teams for the Championships prior to 1996, the Prairie Wolves women have qualified for the NCAA Di¬vision III National Champion¬ships ten of the past twelve years and have won the GPAC Cham¬pionships the past two years in dominating fashion.

Seniors Bridget Baldwin and Laurel Johnson will be joined by junior Jackie Spelts and sopho¬mores Hayley Sutter and Dani Virts in leading the NWU wom¬en this fall. Baldwin, Johnson and Spelts each have All-GPAC awards to their name, while Bald¬win qualified for the 2008 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track Championships in the 3,000 me¬ter steeplechase and Spelts was the 2008 Outdoor Track Cham¬pion in the 5,000 meter run.

Both teams will be primed for the GPAC Championships on Nov. 8 in Hastings and will carry that over to the Central Region Championships in Grinnell, Iowa on Nov. 15 and the NCAA Divi¬sion III National Championships in Hanover, Ind. on Nov. 22.

Bulling and assistant coach Ann Ringlein are looking forward to a season of defending titles and achieving goals.
“Our goals for this fall are to enjoy personal and academic de¬velopment, have a lot of fun run¬ning and have every runner in our program make great strides in the development as a runner,” Bulling said.

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