Nov. 16, 2002

The University of Denver men and women's cross country teams completed their seasons by competing against the top teams in the mountain region at the NCAA Regional Cross Country Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday.

The Denver women's team finished 17th of 17 teams, scoring a total of 528 points. BYU won the women's regional title with 29 points, followed by Colorado with 66 points. Northern Arizona won the men's 10k event with a total of 74 points, while Colorado totaled 93 points to take second place. Denver finished 18th out of 18 teams with 546 points.

BYU junior Michaela Manova was the women's individual winner, just one second ahead of sophomore Ida Nilsson of NAU. Meanwhile, CU senior Jorge Torres defended his Mountain Region title in impressive fashion with a dominating wire-to-wire victory.

Tara Hamilton (Anchorage, Alaska) crossed the finish line first for the women's team, completing the 6K course at the New Mexico Golf Course in a time of 24:06, edging out teammate Dru Weaver (Gillete, Wyo.) who was just .6 seconds behind. Weaver had been the Pioneers' top finisher in every meet this season. Niina Karvonen (Suomussalmi, Finland) was Denver third finisher, less than 30 seconds behind the Pioneer duo of Hamilton and Weaver.

Hans Leithe (Jaren, Norway) paced the men's team, finishing the course in 35:42 just ahead of teammate Amund Hansen (Aarnes, Norway) who crossed the finish line at 35:56. Dylan Prosser (Anchorage, Alaska) was right behind, coming in at 36:55.

Team Scores:
Men -
1. Northern Arizona	74
2. Colorado	        93
3. BYU	                99
4. Weber State	        128
5. Montana State	130
6. Colorado State	180
7. New Mexico	        186
8. Utah State	        203
9. Utah	                214
10. Air Force	        215
11. UTEP	        217
12. Montana	        337
13. Idaho State	        363
14. Southern Utah	379
15. Wyoming	        387
16. Texas Tech	        455
17. New Mexico State	503
18. Denver 	        546


Denver Men
105. Hans Leithe	35:42
107. Aund Hansen	35:56
110. Dylan Prosser	36:55
111. August Teague	36:59
113. Hennie Kashiwa	38:14
114. Justin Rose	38:45


Women -
1. BYU	                29
2. Colorado 	        66
3. Northern Arizona	90
4. Colorado State	99
5. Weber State	        105
6. Air Force	        209
7. Montana State	219
8. Utah State	        220
10. Texas Tech	        269
11. Southern Utah	307
12. Montana	        311
13. Wyoming	        353
14. Nevada	        358
15. New Mexico	        417
16. Idaho State	        452
17. Denver	        528


Denver Women
99. Tara Hamilton	24:06
100. Dru Weaver	24:12
105. Niina Karvonen	24:31
111. Julie Raffety	25:41
113. Elizabeth Voss	26:01
114. Joslin Heyward	26:02
115. Karin Camenisch	26:03