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Cross Country Feature Story on UVM Today
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America East Championship Central

BURLINGTON, Vt. – The University of Vermont will host the America East Cross Country Championships on Saturday (Oct. 31) at Catamount Family Center in Williston, Vt. The women's race will begin at 11 a.m. and be followed by the men's race at noon.

Vermont is hosting the championships for the first time since 1993. That season the Catamount women's team placed second overall and the men's team finished fourth.

The 2009 regular season has been successful for the Catamounts. The men's team has earned a spot in the regional rankings in the U.S. Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association Poll twice this season, while the women have been ranked three straight weeks and four times overall.

Senior Doug Maisey (Gwynedd Valley, Pa.) is the men's top runner for the Catamounts. He finished second overall at the Pre-America East Championship race held on the same course on September 13. Maisey led UVM to a second place finish overall in that race and has been UVM's top runner in all four races he has competed in this year. He ran a season-best and believed to be UVM-best time of 24:34 at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University on October 2.

Maisey has improved on his placement each season at the America East Championship. As a freshman he finished 50th and was the fifth-best runner for UVM. Since then he has been the top UVM runner in the race. In 2007, as a sophomore he placed 31st overall and last year finished 10th, becoming the first Catamount since 2001 to place in the top-10 at the conference championship race and earn all-conference honors.

On the women's side, four different runners have led UVM in six regular season races. Senior Ally Millett (Half Moon Bay, Calif.) and sophomore Morgan Powers (Cincinnati, Ohio) have been the top Catamounts in two races each this season. Freshmen Sophia House (Great Barrington, Mass.) and Debbie Isen (Bethesda, Md.) led UVM at one race each this season. House led the Catamounts at the Vermont State Meet on October 3 and Isen was the lead UVM runner at the New England Championship on October 10. Isen has also been the second-best UVM runner in three other races this season.

Powers placed third overall to lead Vermont to a second place finish at the Pre-America East Championship race at Catamount Family Center on September 13. She finished the course in a time of 18:43.74. Powers was also UVM's top runner at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh on October 2.

Millett led UVM to a second place finish at the UMass Invitational on September 19 after finishing third overall with a time of 17:42. She also out-dueled Powers are the Saint Michael's Invitational to finish first overall in the race with a time of 18:10. Millett was eighth overall at the Pre-America East Championship race and has been UVM's top runner eight times in her career.

The Stony Brook University women and the New Hampshire men were the top picks in the preseason coaches’ polls, respectively. The Seawolves will be looking to win their third-straight title while the Wildcats are seeking their fourth-consecutive championship.

Both of last year’s individual champions, Boston U.’s graduate student Andrea Walkonen and Stony Brook’s junior Tim Hodge return this year to defend their titles. Two-time 2009 America East Performer of the Week, Walkonen is looking to claim her third individual championship title at this year’s conference meet, while Hodge is in search of his second straight individual title.

UVM'S AMERICA EAST CROSS COUNTRY FACTS
- This is the first time UVM is hosting the America East Cross Championship since 1993. The men finished 4th that year and the women placed second overall.
- The men have never won an America East title, the women's only title came in 1989
- Vermont has had two individual champions on the women's side – Gabriella Van Rhyn in 1992 and Brenda White in 1989. UVM has not had an individual winner on the men's side.
- The best individual finish for the men was 2nd place by Trond Nystad in 1993
- UVM has had 10 men and 24 women earn all-conference honors since 1989