Two weeks after the Idaho women’s cross country team won the WAC Championship and the men’s team placed second, the teams are back in action. The Vandal cross country teams compete in the NCAA West Championship Meet Friday at Sacramento, Calif. The meet will feature several hundred of the best collegiate runners in the West.
“We’ve only had high expectations going into the regional meet based off of the success we’ve had this season, especially at the conference meet,” Idaho coach Wayne Phipps said. “The training has gone really, really well. Last Friday was one of the better workouts we’ve had all year long.”
The NCAA West Championship Meet is one of nine regional meets that act as a springboard to the NCAA Championship Meet. The top two teams from each region qualify for the NCAA Championship. There are also 13 at-large teams that qualify for the national meet as well as the top four individuals in each region, who do not qualify with a team but finish in the top 25 overall.
Historically, the Vandals have struggled at the regional meet despite coming in with a conference championship win in each of the last three years on the women’s side. Phipps said it is hard for the athletes to keep the same level of intensity at regionals, after giving so much effort at the conference meet. It is also difficult competing in the West Region as it is consistently one of the toughest regions in the country.
But this year, the Vandals may have their best and deepest team of the last four years. Two-time WAC Champion Hannah Kiser leads a Vandal team coming off its fourth consecutive WAC Championship. The team has senior leadership from Kiser, Emily Paradis and Holly Stanton Browning, who were part of all four Idaho championships, as well as up-and-coming talent like sophomore Halie Raudenbush and freshman Alex Siemens.
“This region is so deep and so competitive that if you have an off day, you could go from being a seventh or eighth ranked team to finishing 16th or 17th,” Phipps said. “I think that’s mostly a testament to the competitiveness of this region. I think on paper, this team probably has the most potential that we’ve had over the last few years.”
Kiser had one of those off days, last year. After qualifying for nationals as a sophomore, she failed to finish inside the top 50 her junior year. Kiser has been dominant again this year but has also been struggling with an injury.
On the men’s side, the regional competition will be a mostly new experience. Junior Cody Helbling, the WAC Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year, and freshman Nick Boersma, the WAC individual champion, lead a young Idaho men’s team. The 10K course and large competitive field will be a mostly new experience for a Vandal team primarily comprised of freshmen.
“It’s really a new venture for the men going to 10K for a group that was already making a huge adjustment to go to 8K,” Phipps said. “The five runners that we have here, two had run 8K cross country before (this year). It’s really important to get that experience as we move forward with this young team.”
The West Region Championships will be the last meet of the season for any Vandals that do not qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]