The Georgetown women’s cross country team is going into this weekend’s Big East Championship looking to rectify what has been a disappointing season thus far.
The latest national FinishLynx poll leaves Georgetown outside of the top 30. This is a considerable drop-off for a team that finished 10th in the country in last year’s national rankings.
In the last 16 seasons, the Hoyas have received a bid to run at the NCAA championships and until last season had placed in the top 10 every year- neither of which has been done by any other team. The Hoyas finished 16th in last year’s competition. Coach Helmer expects to regain form in future seasons but has conceded that this year may break the streak.
“It is a rebuilding year, it’s a refocusing year, it’s reminding ourselves of what is important and what we need to do.”
The good news is that two Hoyas-senior Jodee Adams-Moore and first-year Jenny Funk-will make their debuts after sitting out with yearlong injuries.
Adams-Moore, one of the team’s best performers, has been nursing a stress fracture in her foot this year, but Director of Track and Field Ron Helmer expects her to perform well at this weekend’s championship.
“I don’t know if she is quite ready to give us that spark that we need, but she certainly has the ability to do it,” Helmer said.
Funk is making her first collegiate appearance this weekend after injuring herself this summer. Normally, Helmer would have red-shirted an injured first-year to save a year of eligibility. Funk expects to make an impact this weekend and two weeks from now at the NCAA regional meet
“She has special abilities and special talents,” Helmer said.
Helmer is hoping that the return of Adams-Moore and Funk will propel the Hoyas forward and rally the women who have been competing all season.
The stand-in leader this season has been senior Nicole Lee, who has finished in the top 10 in her last two races-the Cowboy Jamboree in Oklahoma and the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Indiana. Lee has the most experience of all the current runners.
“Nicole Lee is running great … she could be as a good a cross country runner as I have ever had,” Helmer said.
Despite the emergence of Lee, the team is still struggling through a sub-par campaign. Helmer attributes the decline to several factors. First is the extreme difficulty in maintaining a high level of performance every season. Second, the injuries to Adams-Moore, Funk, and sophomore Elizabeth Maloy have put unexpected pressure on runners who have never been asked to contribute in such a way. Finally, the recruiting process at Georgetown presents a great challenge, because the team still lacks its own track.
“We lose some people that I think we might have been able to get, but we are still getting some great kids,” Helmer said. “It helps create that lack of depth.”
