Utah State cross country team set for NCAA regional meet in Ogden
The members of the men’s and women’s cross country teams are heading into the NCAA regional meet this weekend in Ogden with mixed feelings.
For some, it will be their last race as a college runner, for others, it will be one more chance to get to nationals. And then there are those who are looking at it as just another meet, one no different from the rest they have had this season.
“I really have mixed feelings about this meet,” said senior Carol Cabanillas. “I am kind of sad to see the season end, but I am excited for the meet to see how the team will do. I really want to go out strong and have no regrets.”
The last meet the team ran at, the Big West Conference Championship in California, it had results that are difficult to forget.
The women had an incredible finish, coming in second. But the men had a disappointing finish, coming in fifth.
Both of those finishes are on the team member’s minds as they get ready to run on Saturday and the women hope for another great performance and the men hope to redeem themselves from their less-than-stellar one.
“It will be a chance to redeem ourselves and our last chance to qualify for nationals,” said sophomore Clark Bryner.
Senior Ryan Griffeth said, “It will be on everybody’s mind. But we won’t let it bother us. Really, what we want to do at this meet is prove that we can run with these other guys.”
Cabanillas said, “We will just have to wait and see how we will do. We can’t live off a past meet because every race is different.”
At the beginning of the season, both teams were optimistic about making it to nationals as a team by the end of the season. The end of the season is here, but the team isn’t as optimistic about nationals as they were before.
Griffeth is still hopeful, though.
“We are hoping for the best,” he said. “We want to go out and have some really good races and hopefully make it to nationals if we can.”
Sophomore Tiffany Strickland said, “It is a good chance that this will be the last meet for the team, it would be a pretty lucky day if the team qualified, but maybe we will be able to get some individuals in.”
Sophomore Clark Bryner said competition will be tough because five of the top 10 teams are in USU’s region.
The women’s team is looking to place higher than it did last year, which was ninth, although another second-place finish might be pushing it.
“It would be great, but second place is kind of stretching it,” said senior Emily Prestwich. “We are hoping to place higher than we did last year. Fifth place would be reasonable.”
Cabanillas said, “I feel like we have done everything we need to have done throughout the season to prepare for and do well at this meet. All we have to do is hang on and continue to do well.”
The team is running at the Riverdale Golf Course at 11 a.m. and again at noon.
Unfortunately for the runners, Ogden has the same weather forecast that Logan does, snowy and cold. However, the runners are hoping that this will be an advantage for them.
“In some ways it can help,” Griffeth said. “I have had some of my best races in the snow and it might hinder some of those other teams that have never run in the snow before.”
Cabanillas said, “It will be snowy and cold, but we will just have to roll with the punches and run as hard as we can.”
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu