Cross country practices hard for BYU Invitational
For Utah State’s cross country team, the past two seasons have given it a taste of what it wants to accomplish this season.
Both the men’s and women’s teams are looking to qualify for nationals with squads this season that are perhaps stronger than they have ever been before.
The BYU Autumn Classic on Saturday, although not a major meet in the season, is a step in that direction.
“We won’t be super good at the meet, we will be able to see where we are at,” said Christi Howell, a member of the USU team.
That is the general feeling on the team as they prepare for the meet this weekend.
“This meet is really a good chance for the freshmen and sophomores to know what it is like to run on the college level,” said Aggie Mike Nielson. “It will be a really low-key meet.”
Utah State Head Coach Gregg Gensel agreed.
“This is a thinking meet,” he said. “It is a good way to find out where everybody is at. Once we see where they are at, we can work from there.”
Even though the team is not too worried about the competition, it will be tough, especially on the women’s side, which will face two of its main rivals in Weber State and BYU.
“We should be able to do really well against them this season,” said Aggie Tiffany Strickland. “We are really excited and have practiced hard.”
The meet will not be the first one this season for the team.
The team traveled to Pocatello on Aug. 30 to compete in an invitational there. The men and women each finished second to Weber State in the meet in Idaho.
While the team didn’t perform its best, most of the Aggies were running faster than they were last year. That is why Strickland thinks the season will be a good one.
The teams have also gained a lot of depth on both sides.
For the men’s team, the depth is mostly in the older runners, but they are looking to the incoming freshmen and sophomores to keep up with them.
The women’s team is a really young team, adding several new faces, but also keeping some of the older ones.
“How much we will improve this season will really come down to how well the freshmen and sophomores run,” Nielson said. “They are the ones with the most room for improvement.”
For Nielson, the competition at the meet this weekend from teams like BYU, UVSC and Westminster, will not be too much to worry about.
Howell and Strickland are especially excited to compete against the reigning national champion BYU women’s team and the 16th place national finisher men’s team, as well as in-state rival WSU.
“I am excited to see what our team can do against these teams,” Howell said. “We are a really good group and have a lot of team unity. The effort will pay off even if it is early in the season. But we are really preparing for the big meets against teams like Minnesota and Iowa and the rest of the season.”
Although the team is not expecting this meet to be a major one, the team is excited to see how their new players will hold up against the other schools.
Both the men’s and women’s teams know that it is a possibility that they could make it to nationals this year. They know this means they must work hard even at the smaller and less competitive meets.
“It will be tough [to get to nationals], because there will be a lot of tough competition at regionals,” Howell said. “I think that it is still a possibility if we have a really good season and everyone runs their best. It is definitely not out of reach for us.”
Nielson is also confident about the men’s team qualifying for nationals. Although the team has been ranked in the top 25 for the last two seasons, they have yet to finish there.
However, Nielson said the team believes that this year will be the first year that a USU team has ever gone to nationals.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu