Cross Country Readies for Regional Run
11/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 12, 2010
HOUSTON - The University of Houston women's cross country team and one representative from the men's squad are set to race in the NCAA South Central Regional at Baylor University's Cottonwood Creek Golf Course Saturday morning.
Houston's women finished seventh at the Conference USA Championships on Nov. 1, pushing them to a No. 15 ranking in the South Central region. Nine women raced for the Cougars at the conference meet. All but two set season-best times in their first race in Tulsa, Okla.
"The girls are looking good right now," head coach Ryan Turner said. "It's that time of year where they are really rested. Conference was a good indication of what kind of shape they're in. They all went there and ran really fast. This course is a lot more challenging compared to the course we ran at conference. There are a lot more and a lot longer hills, but everybody's going to run the same hills. Conditioning-wise, they're in really good shape and strong so I think they should do well."
On Saturday, the Cougars will battle for the top-two team spots to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Championship on Nov. 22.
Of those 32 teams, 16 will come from automatic bids while the other 16 are at-large selections. Only the top-five teams from each regional championship will be considered by the committee for an at-large selection.
Individually, the Cougar women will also be competing for one of eight spots that would automatically qualify them for the NCAA meet. The NCAA will announce 56 individuals to compete in the championship, coming from the top-eight finishers at each regional.
Last season, the Cougars posted a seventh-place finish at the regional, Houston's best finish since the induction of the South Central Regional Championship. A year later, Turner's expectations are still aiming for the top 10.
"Right now, our women are 15th in our region," Turner said. "I'd like to see our women finish in the top 15, that's always one of our goals. Ultimately, we want to be in the top 10 in our region. We have the talent to get there, but it depends on what everybody else does, too. Our girls are talented enough to be top 10, but there are always so many good teams there. It gets tougher every year it seems like."
This year will be no different as Texas holds down the No. 1 spot in the region, while the Rice women sit at No. 3. Saturday will mark the third time this season the Cougars have lined up against the Owls, finishing in second place at the Rice Invitational and seventh at the C-USA Championships where Rice finished first and second, respectively.
SMU holds the No. 11 ranking in the region. The Mustangs finished just two spots higher than the Cougars at the league meet.
In their last time out, junior Megan Munoz led the Cougars with a season-best 5K time of 18 minutes flat. Turner is happy to have another runner to add to his list of leaders as sophomore Kathryn Ducommun and junior Brandi Witte have also led the team this season.
"Megan has really stepped up in a leadership role this year and separated herself both athletically and from a social standpoint," Turner said. "She's being a leader when she didn't even need to be. I'm proud of her for that. She's really been able to handle the training load that we're asking her to do."
Sophomore David Smith is also responding well to the training workload Turner has assigned him. Smith's 27th-place performance at the C-USA meet earned him the opportunity to compete in the Regional Championship as an individual.
"Training is going really well for him," Turner said. "He's coming along very well. I don't know what to expect, but I would be surprised if he didn't continue to run well."
With training going well on both sides, now Turner and the team can focus on the difficult course at hand. Although Baylor has hosted all but one of the NCAA South Central Regional Championships in Turner's era, the course continues to be difficult to train for as it drastically contrasts the flat, fast courses that surround Houston.
"I don't know if I can say it's the hardest course, but it is definitely the most challenging," Turner said. "It's so up and down, the momentum of the hills is so challenging to our team simply because we live in an area where it's hard to simulate that kind of terrain."
The Cougar women are set to battle both the terrain and the competitive field at 10 a.m., while Smith and the men are scheduled for an 11 a.m. start.
Players Mentioned
