Road to Nationals Narrow, But Possible For Women’s Cross Country
After a dominating victory at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championships, the Waynesburg University women’s cross country team looks towards the Mideast Regionals at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.
Head coach Chris Hardie said the Mideast Region is considered the best of the eight regions in the country, pointing towards the perennial powerhouse Johns Hopkins.
After finishing second at the PAC Championships last year, the Jackets finished 11th in the 50-team field. Then-sophomore Julie Gerber moved on to nationals, finishing 114th out of 280 runners.
Hardie thinks this team has a chance of making it to nationals as a team, something that has never happened in school history.
The top two teams in every region get an automatic bid, and then there are 16 total at-large bids, which are chosen by a committee following the regional races. While the placing in the regional is crucial, head-to-head versus other ranked schools and other regionally ranked teams is also important.
“We did what we needed to do at Oberlin,” Hardie said. “We did what we needed to do at the preview at DeSales. We beat all the teams that were under us, it’s just the teams that are ranked, they’re the only teams that we’ve lost to all year. So we need to beat a few ranked teams this weekend to get in.”
The Jackets are ranked sixth in the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association regional rankings.
Hardie said that since the Mideast Region is the top region, it is likely that at least two more teams are taken from the region.
Hardie expects Johns Hopkins and Dickinson to take the top two spots. Following in the USTFCCCA rankings are DeSales, Haverford, Elizabethtown and then Waynesburg.
“Each one of those schools has a unique situation in that we all are different in that we all have a strength and we all have a weakness,” Hardie said. “For us, we don’t have that frontrunner that’s going to go get first, second or third. DeSales does [and] Haverford does. Elizabethtown is like us where they don’t have anybody out front. But DeSales, Haverford and Elizabethtown don’t have the depth that we have. We actually have an advantage to them in that we can put seven out there, where they can put five, and we’ll beat them with our six and our seven.”
The team is taking 10 runners, seven who will run and three reserves. Seniors Katie Latimer, Emily Latimer will run and juniors Angie Marchetti, Elinore Loch, and Julie Gerber will participate along with sophomore Teghan Simonton and freshman Katie Thompson. Waynesburg will hold freshmen Malarie Yoder, Taylor Clarkson and Mary Beth Cunningham on reserve.
To make nationals individually, things get more complicated. Any runner that is on a team from the Mideast Region that is going to nationals will be removed, opening up a pool of remaining non-nationals-team runners.
If Waynesburg does not get a bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships, Hardie thinks the Latimer twins have the best chance of making it as individual runners.
Hardie projects for runners to make it to nationals, they will have to run in the 21:44-22:00 time range.
“I think our top five has a chance individually, because that’s why I think we have a good shot as a team,” Hardie said. “If they all run really well, I think they’ve got a good chance.”