Season Review: Women's Cross Country
12/3/2015 2:00:00 PM | Cross Country
Entering the fall, several question marks surrounded the 2015 USF women's cross country season. After losing veterans Kate Jamboretz and Jana Soethout, the Dons lacked the experience that helped propel them to five straight conference championships from 2009 to 2013. While some may have assumed it would be a bit of a rebuilding year for the Dons, the Green and Gold thought otherwise.
Despite losing the two valuable seniors, head coach Helen Lehman-Winters reloaded the roster with one of the most talented recruiting classes she has had on the Hilltop with the additions of Charlotte Taylor, Weronika Pyzik, Tatjana Schulte and Emma Stähr. Although none of them had any previous collegiate running experience in the United States, the four still provided huge contributions to help the Dons reach their third NCAA Championship appearance in program history.
With a young squad that included three freshmen, USF struggled in the early-going, finishing 14th at the Roy Griak Invitational and 17th at Pre-Nationals. After enduring some growing pains, the Dons emerged in late October, taking third place at the West Coast Conference Championships as Burkard (4th), Weronika Pyzik (5th) and Charlotte Taylor (8th) all finished in the top 10 to secure their spots on the All-WCC First Team. USF fell just short of its fifth conference championship in program history, but gained a great deal of confidence leading up to the NCAA West Regionals.
Needing another outstanding effort to give themselves a shot to make the NCAA Championships, the Dons put together a fantastic showing at West Regionals as Pyzik (8th), Burkard (16th) and Taylor (23rd) all contributed to the highest combined top three performances in USF cross country history. The trio all earned All-West Region honors and pushed USF into a great position to qualify for the National Championships.
After anxiously waiting to hear if it would qualify as one of the 13 at-large teams for Nationals, USF received the good news from the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Committee that the program had qualified for the Championships. The trip to Louisville marked USF's third appearance at the NCAA Championships after appearing in 2011 and 2013.
At the NCAA Championships, the Dons finished 28th in the country - Burkard led the Dons, finishing the 6K race in 85th place overall with a time of 20:45.4. Taylor and Pyzik both battled very hard to finish in the top 150, with Taylor taking 118th and Pyzik placing 132nd.
"This year we had such a young and new team - for them to have that opportunity to compete at that level was critical in terms of our development," Lehman-Winters said.
Next season, USF will have a great chance to make it back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Championships as it returns their entire roster in 2016. Frédérique Latraverse, a sophomore who redshirted this past fall, will also be a very welcome addition for the Dons. The Ontario, Canada native recently took 14th place at the Canadian Cross Country Championships in the Senior 8K division and will add some much-needed depth to the USF roster.
"I think that next year we've positioned ourselves to be as good as we've ever been," Lehman-Winters said. "We have a group of women who are focused on competing at the highest level and are working very hard to get there."
2015 Individual Accolades
West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year/All-West Coast Conference/All-West Region
West Coast Conference All-Academic Team/All-West Coast Conference/All-West Region
All-West Coast Conference/All-West Region
West Coast Conference All-Academic Honorable Mention
West Coast Conference All-Academic Honorable Mention
Players Mentioned
