The ASU cross country team is approaching the most important stretch of its season, beginning with the Pac-10 Championships next week in Seattle, Wash.
Following the Pac-10 meet, ASU will compete in the West Region Championships in Eugene, Ore. on Nov. 13, followed by the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. on Nov 22.
“Regionals [are] really the end all, be all as far as placing at the [national] meet,” ASU coach Louie Quintana said. “It’s extremely important.”’
At the event, the top two teams automatically qualify for nationals.
While the West Region Championships are central in determining who goes to nationals, Quintana has also been strategizing to race well at the Pac-10 Championships. At last week’s NCAA Pre-National meet, he sat several talented runners in order to ensure they are well rested and healthy come time to travel to Seattle.
“For instance, [redshirt freshman] Stephen Schnieders, he was our sixth guy at Notre Dame, and he’s running great,” Quintana said. “But part of me not running him at Pre-[Nationals] is to save his legs for the Pac-10s.”
Redshirt junior Camille Olson also did not travel to Indiana last week. She continues to train her way back into shape for the upcoming Pac-10 event, where she will compete for the first time since the ASU Invitational on Oct. 1.
It has to be the hair
Junior Lindsay Prescott can always be picked out of the pack from afar, for she has one running habit that differentiates her from nearly every other female harrier on planet Earth — she doesn’t run with her hair up.
“I started running when I was eight, and I never put it up,” Prescott said. “Because when you’re eight, you don’t care.”
This childish apathy continues to be a part of Prescott’s running routine today. It seems to be working out well for her, and Prescott said she never considers using anything to keep her shoulder length brown hair out of her face during competition.
“When I do put it up, it feels weird,” Prescott said. “And it’s bad luck for me and the team — I learned that in high school.”
The whiplash of her hair hitting her face doesn’t faze Prescott either, who has emerged as the Sun Devil’s frontrunner this season.
“I’m so used to it, it doesn’t even matter,” Prescott said.
Mid-season recap
Thus far, ASU has not had the success they had hoped to have, especially at nationwide events such as last week’s NCAA Pre-National meet.
Redshirt senior Ben Engelhardt thinks the unfulfilled expectations might be a result of the Sun Devil’s making things more complicated than they really are.
“The less you can do at a race, the better it seems to go,” Engelhardt said.
ASU’s harriers, who have been training intensely in practice in order to peak come championship season, must be more focused on placing and helping the team win than on individual times.
“You’ve just got to know where your surroundings are at and know where you’re at in the race,” Quintana said. “If you worry about your time, it might be completely irrelevant in a given year. You’ve just got to go out and race for place.”
Despite the recent struggles, neither Engelhardt nor Quintana is in desperation mode just yet.
“Practice has been going really, really well,” Quintana said, adding that the Sun Devils must continue to stay focused on the coming weeks and keep working towards their ultimate goal of returning to the NCAA Championship meet.
Reach the reporter at kyle.j.newman@asu.edu
