The Ohio cross-country team will participate in the NCAA Great Lakes regional contest tomorrow, which means certain runners will have a chance to qualify for the national meet.
To automatically earn a spot in the NCAA Championships, a runner must finish in the top four at regionals.
Seniors Annie Beecham and Ridge Robinson are Ohio's favorites to make it into that elusive group.
I think she has a better chance than I do right now
Robinson said. We both are like right there on the edge of making it. It's really just going to come down to how we race that day and how other people race.
She's been to that level before, so she knows how it works.
Beecham qualified two years ago along with fellow senior Kari Summers. The duo finished in the top 10 in the Regional race
thus earning qualifying bids from the NCAA Division-I selection committee.
But while certain runners have individual goals
there are team goals as well.
We're looking to get in there and place top 15 because that will get us ranked for the beginning of next year, Robinson said.
The Ohio men are unranked in the Great Lakes Region. Earlier this year
though
they were as high as 14th. The women are 10th in the current rankings.
The front two (men's) teams, Wisconsin and Indiana, they really don't have to worry that much about getting beat by anybody, unless Armageddon takes place and a bunch of people from their team drop, Robinson said.
The last time Robinson ran this race
he wasn't happy with his performance. He was the fourth Bobcat to cross the line
which is below the standards he set for himself.
Tomorrow
he said he plans to begin the race a bit slower
in order to conserve energy for the second half of the 10K.
The last half of the race is going to be one, big, negative split, Robinson said. I'm going to have to stay in contention with the guys I need to beat to make the national meet.
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