The Northwestern women’s cross country team competed at the NCAA Championships last fall for the first time since 1985.
But as four seniors — half the varsity roster — graduated in June, the team will head into this season with two main goals: rebuilding the squad and improving on last year’s success.
A main component of rebuilding will be working as a team, and at this weekend’s meet the women plan on not just running together, but next to each other in the Roy Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota.
“We did our best last year when we ran with our teammates and pushed each other to do our very best,” junior Diana Hossfeld said. “We’ve been pushing each other along in practice, and I think we’ll see some good results from that.”
Senior Emily Blakeslee agrees.
“It’s always easier to have someone next to you, someone you know you’ve trained with,” Blakeslee said.
Hossfeld, Blakeslee and senior Nora Colligan are expected to be the top runners for the team this season. The three were the top finishers for the team at the Sept. 19 Spartan Invitational in East Lansing, Mich.
Saturday’s meet will be a good preview of how the women will fare against some of the top teams and runners in the country. The meet will feature 14 of the top 30 teams in the country, as well as five other Big Ten teams: Minnesota, Penn State, Indiana, Michigan, and Michigan State.
Last season at the Roy Griak, the Wildcats finished 12th out of 22 teams, and they hope to again break into the top 15 this year.
“We hope to run well as a team and do better than we did last year,” said coach Amy Tush.
After their berth in the NCAA Championships last season, the Cats hope the team will continue to be recognized as a strong and competitive squad.
The team finished 30th at the championships, held last November in Terre Haute, Ind.
“This is a good opportunity to see how we compare to those teams,” Tush said. “It will be nice to see how in a big competition the girls can handle the pressure.”
With so many new runners on the team, NU’s trio of seniors will shoulder the load while younger runners work their way into the mix.
“Since we lost half of the varsity team, we’re putting more pressure on ourselves to do as well as we know we can,” said Blakeslee. “We’re trying to see where we are, and we want other schools to recognize where we are.”
But while feelings of pressure may be present, the Cats still have their priorities straight.
“The focus this year is to try to have fun,” said Hossfeld. “We need to go out there and not think about all the different pressures.”
