Matt Gibney, Hugo Beamish, and Mathew Mildenhall will not compete this weekend. Gibney is being brought back carefully from a stress reaction in his hip that derailed his outdoor season in the spring. He is basically healthy, but is being saved for later, as it were. Beamish and Mildenhall are resting some tweaked hamstrings and will also be held out. These three individuals constitute a large portion of the top end of the squad, so view the team results with some context. Here is the story from Villanova.com's XC page.
Villanova Heads to Notre Dame Invitational in Second Meet of Season
Sept. 28, 2010
VILLANOVA, Pa.--Fresh off a successful start to the season last week, the Villanova men's cross country team will gear up for its first big test of the year this coming Friday, when the Wildcats compete in the Notre Dame Invitational against many of the top teams from around the nation.
One of those highly-ranked squads is Villanova, which is ranked No. 14 in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national poll. This week's race at Notre Dame features two of the country's top five teams and a total of seven schools from the top 30 of the USTFCCCA poll.
The meet will be held on the Notre Dame Golf Course on the southwest corner of the Fighting Irish campus, and the men will run an 8K course in the Blue Division race beginning at 5 p.m. Aside from host Notre Dame, the Wildcats are the only other BIG EAST squad running in the meet.
Although two upperclassmen will miss this week's competition due to minor lingering injuries, Villanova will have the services of senior Carl Mackenzie (Lower Hutt, New Zealand) and junior Matt Kane (Fairfield, Conn.) among its contingent of eight runners. The pair finished first and second, respectively, at last week's season-opening Main Line Invitational.
Head coach Marcus O'Sullivan has an experienced group of runners this season and the group of Wildcats that compete on Friday will feature four seniors and two juniors. Mackenzie is joined by classmates Keith Capecci (New Hope, Pa.), Brian Long (Louisville, Ky.) and Matt Wikler (Richboro, Pa.), while Kane and Joseph LoRusso (Oak Hill, Va.) are both third-year runners.
In addition to its solid core of returnees, Villanova had several redshirt freshmen make their official debuts for the Wildcats last week. Among that group were sophomores John Pickhaver (Drexel Hill, Pa.) and Greg Morrin (Hockessin, Del.), who will each be running at Notre Dame on Friday evening.
Villanova is behind just two other team entries in the class of seven top-30 squads. Oregon (No. 3) and Alabama (No. 5) lead the way, while New Mexico (No. 16), Arizona State (t-No. 18), Florida State (No. 21) and UCLA (No. 30) have also entered the competition.
Villanova Also Sending a Delegation To Paul Short Run at Bucknell University.
Several members of the Wildcats will be in action earlier on Friday in the annual Paul Short Run. As a team, Villanova will have six runners in the men's Brown race which begins at 12:15 p.m. on the 8K course. The group running as a team includes seniors Mark Hogan (Clifton, Va.), Brian Tetreault (Cinnaminson, N.J.) and Chris Williams (New York, N.Y.), junior Joseph Capecci (New Hope, Pa.) and sophomores Dan Norman (Lexington, Ky.) and Alex Tully (Little Rock, Ark.).
In addition to the team entry, the Wildcats will have a group of runners competing as unattached entries. They will go off in the men's open race starting at 10:10 a.m.
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