The women's cross-country season officially ended Monday after their race at the 2002 NCAA Championships, which were hosted by Indiana State and held in Terre Haute, Ind.
The women's team that returned to Tempe was no better or worse than the veteran team of last year. At the 2001 championships, the team finished 23rd. This year the young Sun Devils found themselves in the 23 spot once again, this time in a tie with William and Mary. It was the fifth consecutive year the women came home with a top 25 finish.
"I think we ran like freshman for the first time this year," ASU coach Walt Drenth said. "We were capable of being higher, but that is because we did not get into the race early enough. We fell behind early and could not pass enough runners to make a push for a higher team finish."
ASU accumulated 549 points and was lead by freshman Amy Hastings with a 69th-place finish at a time of 21:14.3. Following her was senior Cody Sohn in the 100 spot at 21:29.4. Sophomore Desiree Davila came in 118th with a time of 21:37.8 and freshman Anna Masinelli, who has stepped it up in the final two meets, finished 125th at 21:42.2.
Rounding of out the top five Sun Devils was freshman Jessica Scalzo. Scalzo has led the women's team in every meet she has participated in but ended this one in 137th place with a time of 21:50.
Redshirt freshmen Mandi Fitz-Gustafson (174th; 22:09.6) and Liz Lindgren (187th; 22:20.9) also competed at the championships but were not counted in the scoring.
Brigham Young won the women's title with a total of 85 team points. The top women's Pac-10 team at the NCAA Championships was Stanford in second place with 113 total points.
The women were not the only ASU participants, however.
Senior Fasil Bizuneh and sophomore J.J. Duke both qualified at the 2002 NCAA West Regionals on Nov. 16 to individually race in the final championship also.
At the meet, Bizuneh, a two-time All American, was looking to finish in the top 25 to become the first three-time All-American in ASU history. He ended his final cross-country meet in 55th place and wasn't able to grab the honor. His finish time was 30:46.1.
"Fasil ran his best race of the year. Whatever may have held him back at the start of the year, he came out of it and ran well today," Drenth said.
Duke, who has been solid all year for the men, finished behind Bizuneh in 104th place with a time of 31:08.8.
"I think J.J. will be an All-American next year and will help get our guys into a high national finish," Drenth said.
Once more, the top Pac-10 team was Stanford for the men and they were also able to take home the title by finishing in first place.
"Our optimism is very high for the following years to come. They understand what we need to improve upon to become a better team," Drenth said. "They know they need to be very intense."
Reach the reporter at katie.crane@asu.edu.
