4BThe Daily Tar HeelMonday, August 27, 1984
Cross country still strong after Nesbit
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By SCOTT CANTERBERRY
Staff Writer.
Gone from North Carolina's women's
cross country team is all-world runner
Joan Nesbit. But according to coach Don
Lockerbie, the 1984 Tar Heels will
Surprisingly be as good, if not better, than
the team which finished eighth in the
NCAAs and fourth in the TAC national
championships last year.
Losing Nesbit, UNCs first female cross
country ' All-America, "is like losing the
franchise, Lockerbie said. However, the
return of the next top six runners and
a talented recruiting class, the Tar Heels
should again be among the nation's best.
Leading the way will be junior Ail
American Holly Murray. Murray, des
cribed by her coach as the team's fiercest
competitor, missed both the indoor and
outdoor track seasons because of a knee
injury that also bothered her during the
summer.
Murray, a team co-captain, should
return to top form before the season starts
and continue to compete very well on the
national level, Lockerbie said.
Because cross country scores depend on
the placing of the team's top five indi
viduals in the 5,000 meter race, team depth
is essential to winning. Only seven runners
are allowed to compete for the team in
the ACC, district, and national
championships.
Along with Murray, returning members
from last year's top seven are junior co
captain Madlyn Morreale, juniors
Kemper Knight and Kathy Norcross, and
sophomores Karol Dorsett and Heather
Zimmerman.
Lockerbie said he looks for Morreale,
the only woman on the team to beat
Nesbit, "to regain the form and improve
tipon her outstanding freshman year."
"We have three or four sophomores and
juniors not in the top seven that could
probably be on any other team in the
nation," he said, adding that juniors
Valerie Roback, Becky Calhoun, and
Katie Merten all have good shots at
securing a starting spot.
Redshirt freshman Jeanne Matta could
be a big surprise for UNC. "Matta was
one of the nation's top high school runners
two years ago before being injured last
year. She will also be in contention for
the top seven.
Top recruit Vicky Verinder, last year's
Virginia state champ in the mile, two mile,
and cross country, "has the potential to
be sensational in both Carolina and
American distance running," Lockerbie
said.
Leah Ann Miller, an outstanding track
runner, "is one of the most talented
athletes we've seen in a long time," he said,
adding that Miller might be able to help
this year's team.
A late recruit was Audrey Baldessari,
one of New Jersey's top distance prospects
last year.
Despite the loss of Nesbit, who will be
a graduate assistant coach for the team,
Lockerbie said that if the girls improve
their times 15 to 20 seconds from last year,
the teain, could joaove up into the nation's
top five. r
He said his team was on a "two-year
plan that could give it the national crown
in 1985." Within that schedule, Lockerbie
said this year would both improve and
season his young team. Next year, with
all of the top runners returning, the Tar
Heels could be serious contenders for the
national championship.
The women open the season in a
nationally flavored event in the Western
Ontario Invitational in Canada on Sept.
22. But the first true test for the team
in the post-Nesbit era will be Sept. 29,
when seven of last year's top 14 NCAA
team finishers meet in Chapel Hill for the
Tar Heel Invitational.
. "This will be the top cross country
invitational in the country," Lockerbie
said. National power participants include
North Carolina State, Tennessee, Clem
son. Brigham Young, Florida and
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CROSS COUNTRY
Coach. Don Lockerbie
Homesite: Finley course
Starters returning: Women (6)
HoSiy Murray, Madlyn Morreale,
Kathy Norcross, Karol Chambers,
Heather Zimmerman, Kemper
Knight. Men (5) Tom Bobrowski,
Jack Morgan, Jim Farmer, Mike
Currinder, Walter Deneen
Forecast: With six of last year's top
seven runners returning and great
depth, the women's team has the'
potential to improve upon last
year's eighth place NCAA finish.
The men should be a much
improved team and could finish in
fhe lop half of the ACC.
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Jack Morgan
Virginia.
A coaches' preseason poll picked UNC
second to NCSU, he said. He added that
UNC, as well as Clemson, should give the
State team a good run for the conference
championship.
The ACC championships are Oct. 27
in Chapel Hill and the NCAA District
III championships are Nov. 10 in Green-
ville, S.C. Only the top four women's'
teams from the 13 southern states advance
to the NCAA championships.
With its returning contingent of
runners, excellent depth and a contribut
ing freshman class, the women's cross
country team should again be a powerful
force on the national front.
The men's cross country team should
improve upon last year's rebuilding season
but will be hard-pressed to make a
significant climb in the ACC standings.
A very young team that finished sixth
in the 1983 ACC championships should
be a much improved, more experienced
squad this fall. But coach Don Lockerbie
said it was still "hard to project at the
moment" what kind of season the team
would have in 1984.
"We still might be a year away," he said.
The Tar Heels tied for fifth place with
N.C: State in an ACC coaches preseason
poll. But that's no dishonor, since the
ACC is arguably the nation's toughest
conference.
George Nicholas, who sat out last
season after transferring to UNC follow
ing two years at Wake Forest, should
provide "a kick in the pants" for this, year's
team, Lockerbie said.
The nation's top high school distance
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Y5lH5 15 MICHAEL'S HOP IT m
runner in 1981, Nicholas finished seventh
in the 1982 ACC championships and then
transferred to UNC.
"Nicholas is a penetrator one guy
who has a chance to win a race and
we didnt have that last year," Lockerbie
'said.
"He has world experience; he's one of
the most respected athletes in the confer
ence and should be a contender for the
ACC crown."
Lockerbie called Nicholas, a team co
captain, the "best American in the
conference."
Behind Nicholas, the next six finishers
could emerge from a large group of
talented runners.
Senior Jack Morgan seems to be ready
for his finest cross country season,
Lockerbie said. Senior co-captain Tom
Bobrowski, a junior transfer last year, has
made the adjustment to UNC and is a
superior runner, he added.
Also, transfer Steve Dixon should vie
for a top seven spot.
Juniors Bill Will and Lauren Willis
could contribute to this year's team in the
starting lineup.
Two sophomores, Jim Farmer and
Mike Currinder, who were in the top seven
last year, "have the potential as younger
runners to get in some great races this
year," Lockerbie said.
He also said junior David Schnorren
berg, a slow starter who comes around
in October and November, should, push
people to stay in shape during the season.
, Even with a talented group of incoming
freshmen, the chances of this year's class
contributing like last year's freshmen are
slim, Lockerbie said.
"Hopefully, to contribute, the freshmen .
will have to run sensationally instead of
by injury to a starting runner," he said.
John Hussey, the lOth-ranked miler in
the country last year, headlines a good
recruiting crop. Eric Landis from East
Mecklenburg High in Charlotte could be
a great runner in the future, Lockerbie
said.
He said freshman Chuck Lotz, who
only became a serious runner last year
fter dropping football, is a "real find that
has the natural ability to be a future star."
Another good prospect is Cincinnati
native Ken Eheman.
Lockerbie said it is difficult for fresh
men to be prepared for their first college
cross country season.
"They don't know how to train in the
summer," he said.
College Cross country races are 10,000
meters and five miles, double the typical
high school race. "It just doubles the work
load," Lockerbie said.
Clemson, a team dominated by foreign
ers, is the preseason favorite to take the
ACC crown, he said.
If UNC is to knock off any or all of
the next three ranked teams, Wake,
Virginia, and Maryland, "we must believe
in ourselves and go for broke," Lockerbie
said.
Last year's outstanding recruiting class
at Carolina was offset by tremendous
recruiting classes in most of the other
schools in the conference, he said, calling
last year's ACC crop "the greatest
freshman class in any conference in the
country."
"It will be highly competitive in the
conference for a long time," he said.
"It wont get any easier."
Like the women, the men open the
season at the Western Ontario Tnvita
4 tional. Then it's back to the Tar Heel
Invitational to run in a competitive field
including Fairleigh-Dickinson, Brigham
Young and William and Mary, among
others.
Lockerbie said the Finley course had
been changed this year to make UNC cross
country a better spectator sport.
"Within a three-mile race, you will be
able to see the runner in seven or eight
different places," he said.
The ACC championships will be held
on the Finley course Oct. 27.
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Track
X-country trio have more in common
- -
than merely sharing an apartment
By BOB YOUNG
Staff Writer
Mike Currinder, Jim Farmer and
George Nicholas are more than just
teammates on the North Carolina men's
cross-country team. They're also room
mates living in an off-campus apartment.
And they have more in common than
a sense of anticipation for the upcoming
season. They all possess personalities that
mix - in equal proportions - a serious,
dedicated side with a light, comical side.
When discussing their living arrange
ments, they are somewhat less than
serious.
"I was living off-campus last year and
I didn't want to change that," says
Nicholas, a Wake Forest transfer. "So I
convinced Mike and Jim to go in on an
apartment.
"We did it for the camaraderie," Farmer
says. ;f '
"We're homosexuals," jokes Currinder,
who hails from St. Louis.
Actually, Farmer and Currinder, both
sophomores, decided on the apartment
because of their disenchantment with
dormitory life.
"There were too many distractions,"
Farmer says.
And Nicholas believes that it's easier
for teammates to get along together away
from the track.
"If you're living with a non-athlete, you
seem like two different kinds of people,
an athlete and a regular person," he says.
"But with us, we can just treat each other
like normal people. Running isn't a big
topic."
"Yeah, we even had a Tupperware party
last night," Currinder says.
When it comes to more important
matters, however, the threesome becomes
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threesome paces cros3 country taam
more serious. Currinder's attitude speaks
for the group.
"When I'm on the track or in the
classroom, I want to be totally serious
about what I'm doing," he says. And right
now, that seriousness is focused on the
upcoming season.
Emphasizing that the team is basically
young, the three seem to have a guarded
optimism about how the season will shape
up.
"Well definitely be better than last
year," Farmer says. "If we can get good
races from all the team members consist
ently, we could surprise some people."
Nicholas, whose performance will be
key to the team's success, knows that there
will be pressure on him to do well.
"With notoriety comes expectations,"
he says. "But I'm just going to run the
best that I can and let the other things
fall into place." - - -
Farmer and Currinder both believe that
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the experience of being in the top seven
of last year's squad will be a point in their
team's favor.
However, the threesome's dedication
doesnt end when they take off their spikes
- their academic achievements prove that.
All three are on the dean's list.
"School definitely comes first," Nicho
las says.
"If I saw my grades starting to slip,"
says Farmer, "I would quit running in a
second."
But so far there have been no problems,
and none are foreseen. After all, with that
blend of dedication that doesn't fall into
obsession and looseness that doesn't
become carelessness, how could there be
problems?
"Well, we have to teach Jim to cook,"
Currinder says.
"No," Farmer says. "Ill just find myseli
a honey so she can do it for me."
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