Hopes run high among the Vandal men’s and women’s cross-country teams as the annual chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships draws near.
Idaho will compete against about 30 other universities from Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado and Idaho in the NCAA West Region Championships to be held Saturday in Palo Alto, Calif.
Expectations are high for the Vandals this year as both the women and men will be fielding full teams. The women’s team has not had an NCAA Championship qualifier since 2004, and the men’s team hasn’t been represented for more than 60 years.
“We are hoping to get some sort of representative at the National Championship,” Idaho coach Wayne Phipps said. “Whether that’s a team or individual, we definitely are shooting to have somebody represent us at the cross-country nationals.”
The regional race features 27 men’s teams and 34 women’s. The field includes more than 300 runners, and only the top two teams in each region are guaranteed to qualify for nationals. Several individual runners get a chance to qualify if they finish high enough in the race.
“The West Region has always been the top region in the nation so it’s a tough one to qualify out of automatically,” Phipps said. “You can finish in the top seven or eight as a team and still have a chance to go (to nationals) because you are running typically against nine or 10 teams that are ranked nationally.”
Phipps said it can be tough coming into regionals after the runners spend so much energy in the WAC Championships, where the women placed first and the men took third.
“We definitely peaked for conference,” Phips said. “(Practicing) is just a matter of holding on to that peak and finding a balance between maintaining fitness and staying rested for (the Regional Championships).”
On the women’s side, the Vandals look to sophomore Hannah Kiser to lead the chase, and Barry Britt and Markus Geiger on the men’s side. Britt was an all-region runner last year after placing 24th in the 2010 West Region Championships, just four places out of qualifying for nationals.
Phipps said athletes sometimes struggle to accurately determine the level of their competition, but as a coach it is his job to understand that.
“As a coach, you have to be really aware of what other teams are doing and what individuals are doing,” Phipps said. “It’s difficult for an athlete to see where they are.”
Heading into regionals Phipps is evaluating the competition to figure out which teams the Vandals should run with to give them the best chance to qualify.
“Times kind of get thrown out the window a little bit (at regionals),” Phipps said. “It’s just a matter of matching up with teams that we feel are going to be potential last teams to make it into the national meet.”