Hoosier women, men perform well at Pre-Nationals

In their last meet before championship season, the IU men’s and women’s cross country teams impressed and made strides toward improvement and consistency.

Their performance this weekend at Pre-Nationals, held at the LaVern Gibson Course in Terre Haute, placed them high among the best in the nation.

“(It was) a great run for this time in the season, at that course, at that meet.” IU coach Ron Helmer said. “For where we are and the time we’ve put in, I felt really, really good about both teams at this point.”

In the women’s race, the team ran both consistent and competitive, finishing 14th out of the 41 participating schools.

The Hoosiers were paced by junior Wendi Robinson, who finished 23rd out of the 278 athletes. Sophomore Sarah Pease followed her at 78th, and senior Kristina Trcka was the third IU runner across the line at 90th.

“The girls ran really, really well,” Helmer said. “It was a huge step forward. Again, we have work to do and we need to get better, but we’ll put time in at practice.”

Robinson was optimistic about her team’s performance.

“Overall, it went great,” Robinson said of the meet. “We ended up 14th, which was a pretty good performance. It was a step in the right direction, and most of our girls (set personal records).”

The men finished eighth in the Pre-Nationals White 8K race, which featured a total of 267 runners, including seven Hoosiers.

Senior Brennon Plotner was the first IU runner to cross the finish line at 30th, followed closely by sophomore Ben Hubers at 31st. The remaining Hoosiers were grouped together, with senior Tim McLeod finishing 45th, freshman Andrew Poore 53rd and sophomore Cole Hardacre rounding out the top five at 60th overall.

“It was everything we wanted out of that race,” Hardacre explained. “We ran really smart in the race and put ourselves out there. It was a good spread from our first man to our fifth. We really showed people that we can run with good teams.”

The Hoosiers will get a few weeks to practice and prepare before traveling to Ann Arbor, Mich., on Nov. 2 for the Big Ten Championships.