Milwaukee, WI (U-WIRE) -- There are only so many times one can put together a jigsaw puzzle before it gets old and a new challenge is needed.

The Marquette women's cross country team might be feeling the same way now that it's leaving Conference USA.

After winning the last five C-USA championships, and seven out of 10 overall, it would be tough to blame anyone on the team or head coach Dave Uhrich for being excited about new challenges.

C-USA's "very good, but it's certainly not one of the top few conferences," Uhrich said. "If it was, we wouldn't have dominated it so completely."

"We're ready for something else," junior Jodi Jakubek said. "Conference USA isn't a bad conference. I think it's good, but it's not as competitive as the Big East will be."

Jakubek also said that although there was not really one defining moment for her in C-USA, it was special to have kept winning the conference, and especially winning it in the last year they will be in the conference.

"Ever since we've been here we've won Conference USA," Jakubek said. "It was great this year ending on a good note."

Naturally, things have not always been so easy. The team was far from being described as a powerhouse back when Marquette resided in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference or even the Great Midwest Conference.

The pace started to pick up when Marquette joined C-USA in 1995. That marked the year the team received its first national ranking. It was also at this time that Uhrich was graced with someone he singled out as one of the most important runners in school history, Amy Erickson.

"Amy was my first national-caliber runner," Uhrich said. "She came in, not too highly recruited, and she just kept getting better and better."

Erickson eventually got so good that she was named Conference USA's Athlete of the Year for cross country in 1997. She was also the first All-American cross country runner in C-USA history, an honor she received the same year.

The women's team has qualified for the NCAA tournament the last five years. This year, it finished 28th overall at the national meet.

Coaching the team to seven out of 10 C-USA championships and picking up just as many Coach of the Year awards did not go unnoticed by the conference, which honored Uhrich with the prestigious Coach of the Decade award.

"Any time you get awards like that it's nice," Uhrich said. "But it's a team award, the athletes have gone out there and are running, not me. It's also a nice recognition for the university."

Although possibly overshadowed by the women's remarkable string of championships, the men's team hasn't exactly performed poorly.

"They've been consistently the best team in the conference," Uhrich said. "We weren't winning it, but they have the highest finishing average out of all the teams. Two years ago we finally won the conference meet which was an incredible thrill because we had finished second so many times."

Winning the conference in the 2003 season after a series of disappointments was no easy task and gave team members a feeling of relief and euphoria.

"Definitely when the team won last year, that was the coolest feeling ever," sophomore Jeremy Williams said. "It was decent competition when we won. It definitely wasn't handed to us."

In the end, both teams had impressive showings in C-USA and are more excited about what is ahead of them than what has been left behind.

Then again, that is probably to be expected from a group of runners.

"It's been a nice little progression," Uhrich said. "The Great Midwest and Midwestern weren't too strong, Conference USA was stronger and the Big East will be stronger than that."

(C) 2004 The Marquette Tribune via U-WIRE