Women stake their claim at Pre-NCAAs

Going into this weekend's Pre-NCAA 6k Meet at Indiana State University on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course, the women's cross country team was ranked No. 30 in the FinishLynx national cross country poll. After all the runners had finished the race, a solid showing by the team was had. The Hoosiers finished eighth out of the 38 teams in the race.\nThe team was ousted by top ranked teams such as No. 1 Brigham Young, No. 4 Colorado, No. 5 Georgetown, No. 9 Wisconsin, No. 20 Missouri, No. 11 Duke, and No. 14 North Carolina.\nSophomore Mindy Peterson paced the Hoosiers with a finish of 30th and a time of 21:16. The next four finishers for the Hoosiers were freshman Jessica Gall (38th, 21:27), juniors Audrey Giesler (44th, 21:30) and Becky Obrecht (54th, 21:39), and freshman Lindsay Hattendorf (73rd, 21:52).\n"I'm glad that I ran more aggressively the first half of the race, but wish I had been tougher the last half and not died so much," Gall said. "It was a good step up for me, though, and it will be a valuable experience during these last few meets of the season."\nGall said that the team was focused and it showed in their results. \n"We're moving in the right direction but still have lots of room for improvement," she said. "We placed well against quality competition so I think it showed us that we can run with anyone if we are on top of our game."\nGiesler agreed with Gall's assessment of the team's performance. \n"I think we needed a meet like this to lead into the Big Ten Meet," Giesler said. "Mindy and Jessica both took a risk by going out hard and it paid off for them and the team. It was important for us to beat some of the nationally ranked teams like Michigan and Boston College, but we still need to make even more progress at the Big Ten Meet."\nBut, Giesler was not pleased with her own race. \n"I think I might have been a little too conservative in the first part of the race, and that ended up costing me some places at the end," she said. "In future races, I need to take a risk and trust that I will always be able to kick at the end."\nCoach Judy Wilson said in a press release the meet was a solid showing by the team. \n"This is great for the girls, a reward for their hard work, and they're having fun," Wilson said. "At the same time, they know that this is just a poll, and what matters is how you do on the course. This is a good race that leads us into Big Tens."\nThe next race for the Hoosiers, which is two weeks from now, is the Big Ten Championship in West Lafayette at Purdue University. Giesler said it is important for the team to continue to run well. \n"From here, we just have to keep our goals in focus and continue to train and mentally prepare for the big meets to follow," Giesler said. "We have a young team, and we've been able to take something from every meet to improve upon in the next one. At this point, I think we have the confidence, experience, and physical preparation to compete with almost any team in the Big Ten"