The last time they had their backs against the wall, all five runners who scored for the Northwestern women’s cross country team set personal records.
That charge led the Wildcats to a second-place finish in the Midwest Regional Championships — and their first NCAA championship berth since regaining varsity status in 1998.
But in a field of the nation’s 31 top teams, personal records won’t be enough for NU to crack the top 10.
The Cats will be happy just to make the top 25, senior Rachel Evjen said.
“No one thinks we should be here,” Evjen said. “We’re ranked last, so we really wanna surprise some people.”
Today will be the last time four seniors will be lacing up their spikes for NU. Evjen — along with Nicole Kuznia, Laura Evans and Karen Rogers — waited four years for the chance to race at the national meet.
“It’s a dream come true,” Kuznia said. “I’m really excited. It’s such a great way to go out as a senior.”
The Cats spent most of this past weekend relaxing. After arriving in Terra Haute, Ind., Saturday afternoon they began preparing for the meet by shopping and bowling. Kuznia even had time to watch the Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward boxing match.
“I figured that if this guy can sit around and get pummeled for 10 rounds, I can run the 6K a little faster than before,” Kuznia said. “That’s my inspiration.”
NU still has a lot of fight left in it. Today the Cats will try to use the same strategy that landed them in Terra Haute.
NU head coach Amy Tush challenged her runners to start the race with a fast pace and jump out to an early lead. It’s a risky move, but it worked to the Cats’ advantage — as a team, NU was in the top three for the majority of the Midwest Regional.
The Cats only can hope their strategy will work again.
Another advantage NU may have is the weather. After a pleasant weekend, today’s forecast for Terra Haute is for rain and possibly snow.
But bad weather has been good to the Cats: Earlier in the season both Evjen and Kuznia said they liked to run in adverse conditions and their team does better than others in the cold.
Despite having a few advantages, there are some teams against whom the Cats should face an uphill battle.
For example, the only time NU ran against No. 2 Stanford was at the Pre-National meet on Oct. 19. The Cardinal took home the team title, led by Alicia Craig who had the second-best overall time of 20:02.
The Cats raced well and finished 13th. They were led by Evjen, who was only four seconds shy of her personal record. She finished more than a minute behind Craig with a time of 21:16.
“I think that one thing about us is we’ve got other things going on other than running,” Kuznia said. “I’m thinking they don’t do anything else other than eat, sleep and run.”
After today’s race, the four seniors will have plenty of spare time to relax. While Kuznia plans to relax by ice fishing, Evjen is looking forward to the non-athletic side of college.
“It’s gonna be weird after tomorrow,” Evjen said. “But I can’t wait to just be a normal college student. I can start thinking about career stuff, you know, like getting a job.”
