Women's Cross Country Celebrates 2003 Season with Awards Dinner
12/2/2003 12:00:00 AM
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The Alabama women’s cross country celebrated the 2003 season, which saw four freshmen figure among the Crimson Tide’s top-5 for most of the season, at a recent awards dinner.
Perhaps the youngest squad in Alabama history posted four top-5 team finishes during the season.
“With four freshmen and one sophomore in your top five, you have to be patient,” coach Steve Keith said. “But you also have to enjoy the process. These women have a fresh attitude and are eager to develop. They learned to train at a new level, with some very dramatic increases in both volume and intensity from high school, and this will really build on itself from season to season and year to year.”
In the post season, Alabama finished ninth at the Southeastern Conference Championships and 14th at the NCAA South Region Championships.
“We improved one place in the SEC with basically a completely new team and our goals and expectations are now at a higher level,” Keith said. “With this group there has been no shortage of enthusiasm, far from it, and as they continue to grow and learn through the upcoming indoor and outdoor track seasons, the prospects for cross country next fall look very bright indeed.”
And while the Tide’s youth was being celebrated, they also toasted lone senior Kara Nowak, who posted a career best mark at the NCAA Regional, her last collegiate meet.
“It was great to see Kara finish her four years here at Alabama on such a high note; both scoring for the team as our fifth runner and running a personal best at the NCAA Regional meet,” Keith said “Kara’s quiet leadership was a very steadying element for a team made up mostly of underclassmen.”
Freshman Elizabeth Wancowicz was recognized as most improved on the season.
“This was a very hard decision because the entire team improved greatly throughout the season but Wanky, as she is affectionately called by her teammates, had personal best performances in all but one meet this year,” Keith said. “Times, however, are somewhat secondary in cross country, and more important is the contribution you make with your finishing place. Elizabeth was our number three runner all year and then stepped up to number two at the Region Meet when Julia Hicks came up sick.”
The 2003 “Most Valuable” award went to rookie Tara Enebak, who led the Tide over the second half of the season, including being the Tide’s top finisher in both post season events.
“Tara Enebak was our ‘MVE’, or Most Valuable Elephant,” Keith said. “Tara and Julia Hicks traded places up front throughout the season and both led by example, which is fantastic for freshmen. Tara, however, ranked as the number six freshman in the SEC and at the NCAA South Regional. Her consistently high level of racing, and her leadership as one of our top runners, earned her this award.”
A majority of the Tide’s distance athletes return to action with the opening of the indoor season in mid-January.
