William and Mary Well-Represented at the USAT&F Cross Country Championships

Ed Moran Finishes Fourth, Kathy Newberry Seventh

02/16/08 8:05PM

SAN DIEGO, CALIF - Two William and Mary coaches schooled much of the field Saturday at the 2008 USAT&F National Cross Country Championships in Mission Bay Park, recording top-ten finishes and securing likely berths in next month’s world championships.

Complete Men's Results
Complete Women's Results

Assistant men's and women's coach Ed Moran ’03 took fourth in the men’s 12K championship with a time of 35:42, finishing just one second behind 2006 NCAA cross country champion Josh Rohatinsky. This was Moran’s first USAT&F cross country championship, and he guaranteed himself a spot on the world championship roster (the top nine male finishers and top six females represent the United States).

In the women’s championship, head women's coach Kathy Newberry ’00 all-but assured herself of a fourth trip to the world championships after finishing seventh in the 8K race in 27:07. Newberry is the first alternate for the world team, and will go if any of the women ahead of her choose not to declare by Wednesday. She has run for the United States in three of the past four world championships, with a personal-best finish of 25th at the 2004 event.

Saturday was merely the start of what promises to be a long and fruitful year for both Morn and Newberry, both as coaches for the William and Mary track a cross country teams, and as professional athletes. Moran, who won the 5,000m race at the 207 Pan-American Games in meet-record time, has already met the automatic-qualifying standards for the 2008 Olympic Trials and the Beijing Olympics in both the 5,000m and 10,000m races. Newberry has qualified provisionally for the Olympic Trials in the 10,000m run, and still has five months in which to improve upon her qualifying time.

The 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships will be run this year on March 30, in Edinburgh, Scotland.