University of Tennessee Athletics
Novak Paces Lady Vol Cross Country Team In Season Opener
August 31, 2001 | Women's Cross Country
Aug. 31, 2001
BOONE, N.C. - Freshman Brooke Novak, a native of Kaukauna, Wis., won her first collegiate race as she led the University of Tennessee women's cross country team to a fourth-place finish at the Mountaineer Open on Friday evening on the State Farm Cross Country Course at Appalachian State University.
Novak recorded a time of 17:39 in the 5,000-meter race to notch the first victory of her young Lady Vol career. The freshman came to UT as one of the most highly-touted distance runners in the country coming out of high school last year and earned Track and Field News All-America honors as a prep runner. Her mark at the Appalachian State meet was the fifth-fastest time ever run on the course.
Sophomore Jessica Southers (Ashland, Ky.) also proved that she was a force to be reckoned with as she finished fourth in the collegiate race with a time of 18:22. Freshman Elizabeth McCalley, a Knoxville native, finished 16th in her collegiate premiere and recorded a time of 18:40, a personal best.
"I am pleased with the way the team competed today and how well they followed the race plan we had devised," second-year cross country coach Rodney Rothoff said. "The team's results spoke for themselves and I am impressed with the performance of the freshmen in their first race in a Tennessee uniform."
Following Rothoff's plan, the team went out in a controlled pace with Novak, Southers and McCalley in 38th following the first mile of the race and running approximately 15 seconds behind the leaders. At the two-mile mark, Novak moved up to third with Southers in ninth. The Lady Vols then made their final moves with Novak taking the lead at the 2.5 mile mark and steadily pulled away from the field for the win. Southers made her move in the last 300 meters to take fourth in a race run on over a wet course in the North Carolina mountains after rains throughout the day before a clearing at race time with a temperature of approximately 78 degrees.
The Lady Vol contingent was large as seven UT runners competed in the race. Sophomore Erin Anderson (Kent, Ohio) finished 38th in a time of 19:38, while freshman Nicole Cook (Petersburg, Va.) took 48th in a time of 20:05. Junior Amber Ayub registered in at 20:57 for a 63rd-place finish, while sophomore Kameisha Bennett (Dayton, Ohio) took 75th in 22:33.
As a team, Tennessee tallied 107 points to take fourth in the 12-team field. South Florida, a winner of the NCAA South Region in 2000, won the crown with a total of 37 points while Florida State was second with 52. Wake Forest rounded out the top three with 87 points.
The Lady Vol cross country team will be in action again on Sept. 14, as the squad plays host to the Tennessee Invitational. The meet, slated to be held at Lambert Acres Golf Club, in Maryville, Tenn., is another Friday night contest with the start scheduled for 5:45 p.m.
