|
|
| Athletics Home |
| News Archive |
| Composite Schedule |
| Basketball Home Games |
| Men's Basketball |
| Men's Cross Country |
| Men's Tennis |
| Women's Basketball |
| Women's Cross Country |
| Women's Tennis |
| Recreational Sports |
| Cheerleading |
| Gold Star Dance Team |
| Golden Girls Pom Squad |
ALMA MATER
In the Mississippi Valley,
In the Crescent Bend
Stands our loved and noble Xavier,
Far her praises send.
Refrain:
Wave her colors bear them onward
Gold and white so true
Hail to thee, all hail, dear Xavier
Hail, all hail, X.U.!
Xavier, ever be our guide
And lead us on the way,
Through life's journey, onward, upward
To the eternal day. (Refrain)
|
| |
|
|
2009 Xavier University of Louisiana Women's Cross Country Preview
Gold Nuggets, Harding ready to make run at GCAC titles
See also:
Schedule
Roster
Quick Facts
Women's Cross Country Home Page
The ingredients are in place for another
championship season for the Xavier University of Louisiana women's cross country program.
Six returning letterwomen, including all four of their
all-conference runners, will make the Gold Nuggets a strong
favorite in 2009 to win a fourth consecutive Gulf Coast Athletic Conference team championship
and qualify for the NAIA National Championships for the second straight year.
The most intriguing question: Can
senior Ebony Harding break through and win a GCAC individual championship?
|
|
About the Gold Nuggets
• Head Coach: Joseph Moses (LSU 1994), fifth season; 113-195 at Xavier
• 2008 Overall Record: 29-69
• 2008 GCAC Finish: 1st place out of 5 schools
• 2008 NAIA National Championships Finish: 32nd place out of 32 schools
• Letterwomen: 6 returning, 1 lost
|
|
"It's time for Eb to win it," said fifth-year head
coach Joseph Moses. "She trained hard again this summer and looked great.
She deserves an individual conference title, but she knows it won't be
gift-wrapped for her. She'll have to keep working hard for it."
Despite a school-record time of 19 minutes, 48.84
seconds for 5,000 meters at the 2008 GCAC meet, Harding had to settle for her third consecutive
runner-up finish in the conference. Spring Hill's Kate Imwalle was more than
a minute faster than Harding and will return to defend her title.
Still, Harding lowered her 5K best by approximately
30 seconds each of the past two seasons, and Moses expects more improvement.
"The big reason is that Eb's motivated," Moses said.
"She's had a great career at Xavier. She's been all-conference three times and All-Louisiana
three times. No other runner at Xavier has done that. But she wants to do even more her senior year.
She's committed to making this the best year."
Xavier has a capable supporting cast, led by
two-time All-GCAC runner Stacey Windon, a junior, and Anna D'Souza and Ashley
Taylor, who were all-conference as freshmen in 2008. D'Souza also shared
the Freshman of the Year award on the All-Louisiana team.
D'Souza, Windon and Taylor posted a 5-6-8 finish
to help the Nuggets win the conference by 20 points over runner-up Belhaven.
Windon and Taylor recorded personal bests at that meet.
Also back are two-year letterwoman Jennifer Garcia,
the team's other senior, and junior Brittany Everett, who sat out 2008 because
of an injury.
"We have great depth behind Eb, and I'm looking for
improvement there too," Moses said.
Adding to the Nuggets' depth will be four freshmen:
Rubeneisha Cooper of Pearland, Texas, Brianna Dekine of Culver City, Calif.,
Sabrina Vargas of Brookshire, Texas, and Dominique Webb of Carson, Calif.
"We've had six freshmen make all-conference during my time here,"
Moses said. "It would not surprise me to see us add to the total this year."
The Rush will open its season Sept. 4 in the Southern Miss Invitational, the
first of seven meets before the GCAC Championships on Nov. 7 in Clinton, Miss., a suburb west of Jackson.
During the offseason GCAC coaches approved Clinton's Choctaw Trails Course as a permanent
site for the league meet, and Xavier will be the host this year.
The GCAC team champion and the top five runners not on the
champion will qualify automatically for the NAIA National Championships on Nov. 21
at Vancouver, Wash. It will be the first time that the NAIA runs its national meet on
the West Coast.
Harding and Imwalle are scheduled for two regular-season
matchups: Oct. 3 in the Gulf Coast Stampede at Pensacola, Fla., and Oct. 17 in
the Choctaw Open at Clinton. Three weeks later they'll return to Clinton
to battle for conference honors.
|
|
|
