When the Northwestern women’s cross country team finishes the season, it will lose the experience and leadership of four seniors.
Those four runners have combined to pace 98 races for the Wildcats and serve as the backbone of this year’s squad.
What remains to be seen is exactly when the season will be over.
Saturday, NU will make the trip downstate to Normal, Ill., for the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships.
This is the last scheduled event for the Cats, but ultimately the team is in search of its first-ever bid to the NCAA championship meet.
Thirty-one teams are selected for the championship race, which will be held in Terra Haute, Ind., on Nov. 25. The invitees comprise the top two finishers from each of the nine regional meets, as well as 13 at-large teams.
Unfortunately for NU, getting an at-large bid will be very difficult, explained NU head coach Amy Tush.
“Traditionally, they don’t take a third team from our region,” Tush said. “Our goal this week is to not be in that position.”
At-large bids are given based on a complicated point system. Teams receive a ‘quality point’ when they finish ahead of a team during the regular season that makes the championships.
For example, the Cats beat then-No. 22 Penn State at the Pre-National meet.
If the Nittany Lions finish either first or second in their regional meet, or get an at-large bid, the Cats will receive one point.
So for NU to make the championships via an at-large bid, it will need help from Penn State, Florida State and Texas A&M — all teams the Cats have beaten this season.
But NU would like to rely on its own runners — rather than other teams — to receive its first bid to the NCAA championships since regaining varsity status in 1998.
Much of the pressure will be on the strong senior class.
Rachel Evjen and Nicole Kuznia have the potential to be a dangerous tandem for the Cats. Evjen already has proven herself to be the best runner on the team. She only has missed three races since her sophomore year but finished first for NU in the other 18 races.
Kuznia started this season on fire, winning her first-ever individual title at the Illinois State Invitational.
Even though Evjen sat out that race with a sore knee, Kuznia was confident she could dethrone her best friend upon Evjen’s return the following meet.
Kuznia came close, finishing 18 seconds behind Evjen two weeks later at the Roy Griak Invitational.
The two became friends before practices started their freshman year.
“Before I met her, coach was telling me how alike we were,” Evjen said. “When we started talking, we just clicked. After that we were inseparable.”
The two did everything together. They planned their lunches together and even got similar tattoos of the Northwestern N.
“Everyone gets close to teammates,” Kuznia said. “But Rachel is someone I would’ve been friends with without cross country.”
Along with Kuznia and Evjen, NU will miss the legs of seniors Karen Rogers and Laura Evans.
Evans, who is now in graduate school, redshirted her freshman year — the same year cross country was revived as a varsity sport at NU.
Evans raced in only the Cats’ first meet last year before she was injured.
This year she has consistently scored for NU and fell short of beating Kuznia by .6 seconds at the Pre-National meet.
Rogers also has been an integral part of the team, along with Kuznia and Evjen. In her four years, she has run in every race the starting squad participated in, scoring in all but four.
NU will need to utilize the strength and experience of these four seniors to extend its season and reach its goal of making the NCAA tournament.
“They’re gonna run like it’s their last race, and every ‘K’ like it’s their last ‘K,'” Tush said. “They have nothing to lose.”
NCAA Midwest Regional Championships
10:30 a.m., Saturday
Illinois State Trail
Normal, Ill.
