XC Champion Spickard shows resilience

Senior and reigning Colonial title holder looks to elevate JMU through CAAs

By Matt McGovern, assistant sports editor
Posted on September 27, 2007

A season-ending stress fracture would discourage some collegiate runners and prevent them from advancing in their athletic career.

Senior distance runner Dena Spickard missed the 2005 Cross Country season with a stress fracture in her left foot, but a year later was named Colonial Athletic Association Runner of the Year. While absent from competition, she worked hard to recover.

“If the athlete has the right attitude, then they actually come back from injuries a lot of times even stronger and tougher,” JMU coach Dave Rinker said. “They realize what they’ve missed out on.”

In Dena’s case, sitting out a year may have worked out for the best. She won the women’s race at the 2006 CAA Championships by finishing the 6,000-meter course in 21 minutes, 33 seconds, and paced herself off of the favored William and Mary runners.

Explaining the importance of sticking with the frontrunners, Dena said, “It’s hard to bridge that gap, because when you’re at a different level, those people aren’t going to slow down.”

Even before last year, she had experience running at a high level of competition. In the spring of 2005 she won the 10,000-meter event at the CAA Championships with a time of 37:16 in her first race of that length.

Dena also placed 22nd in the 2006 NCAA Southeast Region Women’s Cross Country Championships, qualifying her for the NCAA National Championships. She earned All-Southeast Region honors for her top-25 finish, and was the fourth and last qualifier from the Southeast Region sent to the NCAA National Championships.

The first four athletes from each region who are not on a qualifying team are selected to participate in the NCAA National Championships. There are nine participating regions in NCAA Division I Cross Country.

“She hung in there during the [2006] outdoor track season after her stress fracture, and I think did all the work she needed to do,” Rinker said. “She was just building momentum for the big breakthrough last fall.”

While Dena enjoyed competing in the NCAAs last year, she is now focused on the 2007 CAA Championships and a possible upset of William and Mary, which has won four straight CAA Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships. Dena is one of four seniors on a young team looking to improve on last year’s third place finish at the meet. Freshmen and sophomores account for 17 members of this year’s team, while there are just seven juniors and seniors combined.

“I’m very confident in my girls,” Dena said. “They’ve worked very hard, and so have I, and we have a shot at placing pretty high at regionals and conference this year.”

Dena won the individual women’s title at the JMU Open Cross Country Meet Saturday,

Sept. 15 with a time of 19 minutes, 12 seconds in the 5,100-meter race. Eight teams competed in the race in addition to JMU Club Cross Country runners, and the Dukes placed second as a team.

The 2007 Paul Short Invitational is Friday at Bethlehem, Pa. and is Madison’s second race of the year. The Paul Short is one of four races left before the CAA Championships take place Friday, Oct. 26.