Peterson steps up pace, reaches personal goal

TERRE HAUTE -- Having continued with her fitness level of last season, junior Mindy Peterson continually tried to put together a good race during this season after finishing as IU's top runner in every meet last season except for the Big Ten Championship.\nThe No. 33 ranked IU women's cross country team finished fourth at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Meet on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course, and Peterson stepped up and was able to put together the race she searched for all season. \nShe finished second for IU, 20th overall, with a six-kilometer time of 21:26.5. This time is her best 6K time of the season and 16 seconds faster than her time at the 2002 NCAA Great Lakes Regional Meet, held in West Lafayette.\nIU finished fourth last year in the Regional Meet and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship. The top two teams in the nine regions around the country earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship with 13 at-large bids selected by the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championship Committee.\nLast season, Peterson set her personal record 6K time, 20:55, at the NCAA Championship Meet on the same LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.\n"It was one of the hardest races for (Peterson) to run," IU coach Judy Wilson said. "I think, you know, there were so many times that she wanted to quit, but the thing is, is that she didn't."\nPeterson began the race by going out and running next to teammate senior Audrey Giesler. The two ran together through the first 3K lap around the two lap LaVern Gibson Course.\nHowever, on the back portion of the second 3K lap, Peterson began to fall back from her teammate but remained close enough that Giesler said she could still hear people cheering for Peterson. In the last half of the second 3K lap, Peterson made up the ground she lost, earning IU a lower team score because it edged No. 19 ranked Marquette by only nine points.\n"We knew that we were running well," Peterson said. "Before the race we just had this feeling that, you know, we were going out here and we had nothing to lose, none of us. So we just went out there and ran our hardest."\nGiesler said it gave both her and Peterson the assurance to work together again in the race.\n"If there is anything that just boosted our confidence, to be able to work together with your teammate makes a race go so much faster than when you are out there by yourself," Giesler said.\nWilson said one of the main factors the team needed in the Regional Meet was a great race from Peterson.\n"Before the race I told her, 'We really need a miracle to go to Nationals,' and we got it," Wilson said. "She is the type of person, though, that wants to be there so bad, you know. She just wants to be there so bad. She wants to be up there with the team."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.