Team gears up for run at Nationals

Since the beginning of the season, there has been talk about the IU women's cross country team making it to nationals. \nJunior Audrey Giesler points out that if the Hoosiers are going to go to nationals they need freshmen Jessica Gall and Lindsay Hattendorf to step up in order to accomplish their goal. \n"Our team is expecting to qualify for Nationals this weekend, and we won't be able to do it without them (Hattendorf and Gall)." Giesler said. "They have been an integral part of our success this season, and I'm sure they're both planning on finishing what we set out to do as a team at the beginning of the season."\nHattendorf agrees with her teammate and believes that not only the freshmen, but the whole team is ready for this weekend, "You can expect us to run our hardest and go for that spot to make it to Nationals." Hattendorf said. "We have been working so hard this whole season and we know what we have to do and we are ready to go do it."\nSince the beginning of the season both Gall and Hattendorf have shown significant improvements; this was seen at the Big Ten Championships last week when Gall shed 24 seconds off her personal best time and Hattendorf was 16 seconds faster than her personal best. \nGall believes the biggest reason for these improvements has been the work of coach Judy Wilson along with her transition from the high school race to the collegiate one. \n"Coach Wilson is really good about individualizing our workouts, so college running was a much-welcomed adjustment for me." Gall said. "The racing is a lot different in college than in high school; in high school I could have a bad race and still do well. In college the competition is a lot tougher, so if I don't run as well as I should, it is pretty obvious." \nAlthough Gall had her strongest showing of the year at the Big Ten Championships, she believes it will take a lot more if her team wants to reach their goal of Nationals. \n"Big Tens was an okay race for me," Gall said. "I think I could've ran better than I did, but was still happy to be in the top 14 (which is All-Big Ten). I feel a little more comfortable every race and have been learning a lot from each of my college races, so I'm ready to really run well at Regionals this weekend"