UC Irvine’s Stirling and Rabbitt Gain NCAA All-American Honors

Brigid Stirling and Buffy Rabbitt of UC Irvine earned All-American honors Monday at the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. women’s cross-country championships Monday.

Stirling, a senior, finished the 5,000-meter course in 17 minutes 16.5 seconds for 24th place. Rabbitt, a junior who also earned All-American honors as a freshman in 1987, ran 17:22.52. She finished 29th.

The Irvine women, who entered the meet ranked 12th in the nation, finished 10th overall. Rounding out Irvine’s top five were freshman Rayna Cervantes, 75th in 17:59.32, junior Amy Dabul (118th in 18:23.35) and freshman Laurie Lucas (129th in 18:31.28).

“I’m very, very happy,” Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle said. “We’ve been bouncing between seventh and 10th all year long in the rankings. . . . It’s a super effort, a great effort. And having two All-Americans in one year from one program, I’m awfully happy with that. This is a young team--Brigid is the only senior--so the future looks outstanding.”

Vicki Huber, a 1988 Olympian in the 3,000 meters, won the women’s race in 15:59.86--the fastest time in nine years of women’s NCAA competition--to lead Villanova to the team title with 99 points. Kentucky was second with 168 and Nebraska third with 186.

In the men’s competition, John Nuttall and Jonah Koech of Iowa State finished 1-2 to lead the Cyclones to the men’s title with 54 points. Oregon was second with 72.