When the men’s and women’s cross-country teams think of the state of Wisconsin, they think of it as a place of opportunity.
On Friday, the Sun Devils run in the Wisconsin Invitational, undoubtedly their biggest meet of the year to date. Many top teams from around the country will be present and providing a great challenge to the Sun Devils.
“We are the 14th highest-ranked team there, so we will have our work cut out for us,” men's coach Louie Quintana said.
The No. 23 ASU men’s team stacks up against a long list of prolific teams that include host No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 4 Stanford, No. 10 Oregon, No. 13 NAU and No. 7 Indiana. Regardless of competition though, the Sun Devils are just looking to run a good, solid race and are confident in their ability to do so.
“We could come back on the plane Saturday after running a great race and finish 17th, but we are very confident and our goal is to run as well as we possibly can and hopefully crack the top 10,” Quintana said.
The Wisconsin Invitational holds extra merit, with NCAA qualifying points on the table. Because of this, the Sun Devil men are planning on sending a group of tested runners.
“We are going to run (redshirt freshman) Garrett Baker-Slama, (junior) Nick Happe, (redshirt junior) Darius Terry, (redshirt junior) Matt Boughton, (redshirt junior) Doug Smith, (redshirt senior) Brian Pierre, and (redshirt senior) Daniel Lovell,” Coach Quintana said.
Leading the Sun Devils on Friday will be Terry. He has finished as the top Sun Devil in each meet he has run so far this year and welcomes the extra pressure of running in an acclaimed meet like this.
“I think it will be good,” Terry said. “We are trying to finish as high as we can as a team, so the least amount of points I can score is going to be a big help, and I'll think about that when I'm hurting.”
On the women's side, the team is happy with the work they’ve done leading up to the Wisconsin Invitational.
“Preparations have gone smoothly this week,” women's coach Ryan Cole said. “We have some people coming around very well and everyone understands how far a very solid effort can go in a race of this magnitude, where there will be some unusual occurrences and surprises in the team results.”
Although the ASU women are unranked, they are confident in their ability to put forward a good race and are motivated to race against great competition, including No. 1 Villanova and No. 2 Providence.
“We’re very excited to compete against some of the top ranked teams in the country,” Cole said. “We feel that is our peer group and we’re looking forward to seeing how we match up.”
The group Cole will be sending to Wisconsin is a nice mix and gives the Sun Devils the best chance to perform well.
“We’ll be racing those who will give us the best chance to be competitive,” Cole said. “They happen to be a lot of our experienced, hardened older girls and two of our proven freshman (in Shelby Houlihan and Macy Bricks).”
Cole doesn't really have set expectations place-wise for this race. He just wants all of his women to run well.
“Our expectations are very consistent for racing situations,” Cole said. “We expect a very gritty effort from everyone in an Arizona State uniform, to be focused and on-task when the effort gets tough, and to have our girls fighting for every position coming down the finishing stretch. Our preparations have been strong, so if we do those things in the race, the performance outcomes will be solid.”
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
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