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Reigning over conference, Heineking captures crown

Junior continues perfect fall with fourth individual win; men finish runner-up, women cross in fourth

Virginia Cavaliers Emil Heineking (176)..The Atlantic Coast Conference Cross Country Championships were held at Panorama Farms near Charlottesville, VA on October 27, 2007.  The men raced an 8 kilometer course while the women raced a 6k course.
Virginia Cavaliers Emil Heineking (176)..The Atlantic Coast Conference Cross Country Championships were held at Panorama Farms near Charlottesville, VA on October 27, 2007. The men raced an 8 kilometer course while the women raced a 6k course.

The Virginia cross country teams began their postseason in impressive fashion Saturday, competing in the ACC Championships held at the WakeMed Soccer and Cross Country Complex in Cary, N.C.\nAlthough the men, who entered the weekend undefeated, fell short of winning their third straight ACC Championship and finished runner-up to N.C. State, junior Emil Heineking continued his perfect fall season by capturing the individual title. On the women's side, the Cavaliers improved upon last year's fourth-place finish with a third-place showing. Junior transfer Catherine White also earned All-ACC honors in her first season with Virginia after finishing second overall.

Claiming his fourth title of the fall and second conference crown, Heineking fought off challengers from N.C. State and Florida State, as well as teammate junior Ryan Collins to finish with a time of 23 minutes, 15.5 seconds. While Collins crossed the line right behind Heineking with a time of 23:17:8, N.C. State managed to place three runners in the top 10 to win the team title with 56 points. Virginia posted 71 points to edge third-place Florida State by one point and fourth-place Duke (74).

"I was really happy with our 1-2 finish, with Ryan Collins and I," Heineking said. "We finished with second-place, which is disappointing. There is still some work that needs to be done with our top seven, but I am confident we will get it done and be able to place high at regionals in a couple of weeks."

Other notable finishes for the men were junior Trey Miller (15th), freshman Sintayehu Taye (25th) and senior Graham Tribble (28th).

Though Virginia had the top two finishers, coach Jason Vigilante stressed that the team as a whole still has a lot of work to do before regionals.

"It is amazing to go 1-2," Vigilante said, "it's really incredible. I am really proud of how those guys competed. I am confident that if we continue to work hard and do the right things over the next couple of weeks, that we will be successful at the regional championship."

The women, meanwhile, had their hands full, with Florida State and Duke proving too much to handle for the Cavaliers. While Florida State senior Susan Kuijken ran away with the race to win her second individual title by more than 15 seconds, White easily crossed the line in second. Sophomore Morgane Gay finished second for the Cavaliers, but was out-leaned by two-tenths of a second and settled for a fourth-place finish. Led by Kuijken, the Seminoles placed all five runners in the top 15 to claim the women's ACC Championship with a score of 37 points. Virginia finished third with 84 points, behind runner-up Duke with 71 points.

Though the Cavaliers finished third against some of the strongest teams in the country, among Virginia's runners, the result still left something to be desired.

"We didn't have our best showing," White said of the team's third-place finish. "We were a little disappointed in losing to Duke but we are looking forward to regionals. We will have to race them again, and hopefully improve on our performance so we can take care of business there."

Other finishers for the women's squad were senior Lauretta Dezubay (17th), sophomore Laurel MacMillian(47th) and senior Stephanie Garcia (18th), a Cavalier Daily tableau editor.

Even though the end result fell short of the team's goal, Vigilante said there is a lot to be taken from the ACC Championships. The Cavaliers host the Cavalier Invitational at Panorama Farms on Nov. 6, and will look to utilize their recent experience in North Carolina as a launching point to even greater success.

"We definitely saw some progress on the women's side," Vigilante said, "and for the men they saw that we were up against some good competition, and that we have to be at our best in order to beat them"

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