NC State
ACC Championships
Hoer Wins ACC Cross Country Championship
10/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 30, 2010
Laura Hoer continued her sensational freshman season Saturday, capturing the individual women’s championship at the Atlantic Coast Conference Cross Country Championships in Boston, Mass.
Hoer, NC State’s first women’s champion since Julia Lucas in 2006 and the third in 12 years, ran the 6k course at Franklin Park in 20:04.4, beating out Florida State’s Pasca Cheruiyot by a second. Hoer defeated four returning All-Americans from 2009, including North Carolina’s Kendra Schaaf, who was second in the nation a year ago while running for Washington. Hoer is the first NC State freshman to win the conference championship since Suzie Tuffey in 1985.
“I’m really surprised and still can’t believe this happened,” Hoer said. “I knew we have such a good conference and such a strong field coming out here, but I do have confidence in all that my coaches do for me and what they told me coming in. I told myself I’d stick with the front group, so that’s pretty much what I did and held on, but I don’t think it’s really settled in yet.”
Hoer went out strong and stayed with the front group throughout the 6k race, waiting until the last thousand meters to make her finishing kick.
“It was a tough course and was definitely a tough race, so I went at the last moment possible,” Hoer said. “The last bend is when I really tried and hoped that I could do it. This was just great weather to run in.”
Hoer won for the third time in four races in her brief collegiate career. She opened the season with a 29.5-second victory in the Wolfpack Invitational, then won at the wire in the Roy Griak Invitational. An impressive fourth-place finish two weeks ago at the NCAA Pre-Nationals is her only non-first-place finish this season.
Wolfpack junior Andie Cozzarelli finished 11th at 20:40.4 to earn All-ACC honors. Senior Kara McKenna finished 24th at 21:08.4. NC State finished sixth in the team standings with 137 points. Florida State won the team championship with a low score of 52 points, followed by Virginia (75), Duke (99), Boston College (100) and North Carolina (123).
The Wolfpack finished second in the men’s race, with redshirt-freshman Andrew Colley leading the way for the Pack. Colley finished ninth in the 8k race in a time of 23:56.1. Junior Ryan Hill, a returning All-American from 2009, finished 10th at 24:07.0. Colley and Hill both earned All-ACC honors.
Senior Sandy Roberts was 19th at 24:18.0 and sophomore Matt Sonnenfeldt was 20th at 24:18.3. Junior Bobby Moldovan rounded out the scoring for NC State, finishing 23rd at 24:25.0.
Florida State, with five runners in the top 13, won the team championship handily, outdistancing the runner-up Wolfpack 43 points to 81. North Carolina was third with 84 points, followed by Virginia (92) and Duke (93).
