Women’s cross country coach Amy Tush tells her team everyday “one of these days fall is going to ask you what you did this summer.”

The work ethic the team has displayed throughout its summer workouts has made Tush confident her team, led by four underclassmen, has the answer it needs to be successful for the entire season.

The Wildcats’ first endurance test will come on Saturday at Wisconsin-Parkside’s Midwest Collegiate preseason race.

Among the 30 teams competing at Wisconsin-Parkside will be No. 28 Marquette and Big Ten rival Wisconsin. The Cats originally were scheduled to run at Illinois, but Tush said the competition would be better at Wisconsin-Parkside because the Illini planned on resting their starters.

Freshmen Carly Brown, Allison King and Megan Young will make their collegiate debuts Saturday.

“I am definitely nervous about my college debut, but as long as we pack it up and run a tight race we will be fine,” King said. “The three of us know that we need to focus on gradually improving with each race to compete at this level.”

Because Saturday’s meet is a preseason race that does not count for the Cats’ ranking, it is the first time the Cats will run competitively as a team.

“This is the first big race against other schools, so it will be interesting to see how everyone does against other schools,” senior Ashley Roberts said. “We want to run together and focus on team strategy, but people also want to see what they are capable of individually too.”

Leading the surge of underclassmen is sophomore Marie Grabinski, who led the Cats in every race she ran last season.

Grabinski, who began running competitively three years ago, led the team at the preseason alumni race with a time of 18:08 on a 5K course.

“Marie is still relatively new to the sport, so she is continuing to learn about herself,” Tush said. “I expect another great, consistent year from her.”

Although the Cats graduated three starters and junior Casey Shea is sidelined with an injury, Tush said she is excited to start the season and see how well the underclassmen perform.

“We can do a lot more than anyone realizes right now,” Roberts said. “We need to go out and improve every race and then we should be in a good position at the end of the season to try for a championship.”

Reach Steve Silver at [email protected].