Harriers ready for biggest meet to date, head to Minnesota
The Utah State cross country team is ready for its big debut meet of the season. This weekend the men’s and women’s squads head to Minnesota to race against nationally ranked teams at the Minnesota Invitational.
“This is one of those meets that we are really excited about,” said senior runner Mike Nielson. “It is somewhere that we have never been and we will have a chance to compete against some nationally ranked teams.”
Sophomore runner Trevor Ball is also looking forward to the meet.
“It is our first real big meet,” he said. “The first one that will count towards our goals of the season.”
Both teams are looking forward to competing well in Minnesota. The men’s team is looking to beat nationally ranked teams such as in-state rival Weber State.
The women’s team is going up there looking to work hard and stay together.
“We hope that for the most part we can stay together and run as a group,” said Aggie harrier Carol Cabanillas. “I think the team will do good for the most part, we will be working towards where we need to be. We have a really solid and tough group of girls so it should be awesome.”
Runner Emily Prestwich, said, “It will be challenging for the team because there will be a lot of good competition. We really don’t know quite what to expect, but it could be big.”
Although both teams have been plagued by a plethora of injuries ranging from shin splints to frostbite, things are starting to pick up.
Top runners Nielson and Clark Bryner, who were unable to run in the meet at BYU, have both recovered to the point that they will be able to run Saturday.
However, Ball does not expect to run his best.
“I will run, but it won’t be what I can do,” he said. “I haven’t really ran since BYU, so we will see what I can do.”
Nielson said, “I am definitely not in the type of shape that I would like to be in going into a big race like this, but I am getting better. I am excited for the opportunity that I will have to help the team, even though it won’t be a break-out race.”
The women’s team has also had some debilitating injuries on their team.
Top runners Audrey Golightly and Kristin Coombs have not been able to run all summer and have yet to compete this season. Others on the team have also suffered minor injuries.
Many of the other runners are hoping that this meet will help them kick it up a gear and start performing well.
“I haven’t been running well personally, but I hope I can pick it up and get back to where I need to be,” Cabanillas said. “I hope I can have a good race and get it all worked out.”
Prestwich agreed and said, “It could be a really big race, for me personally and for the team. We don’t know how we will perform against these teams because we haven’t seen a whole lot of them before and we don’t know how we will match up against them.”
Nielson and Ball are also excited to see how the teams come up next to some of the better ranked teams also competing at the invitational.
And as Ball said before, it is the first meet that will count toward making it to nationals and winning their conference.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu