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Preview: SU brings high expectations to XC National Championship
VANCOUVER, Wash. – National championship events
always seem to bring out the best in athletes.
That’s what a dozen Shorter University cross country runners hope to prove on Saturday as they compete in the 2010 NAIA Cross Country National Championship in Vancouver, Wash.
Nine Hawks who helped Shorter post a perfect score in the SSAC Championships and a trio of Lady Hawks led by the defending national champion will carry Shorter’s banner at the annual national meet.
While Shorter’s men enter the last race of the season fresh from winning the Southern States Athletic Conference crown by sweeping the top six spots, they are eager to improve on last year’s 18th-place finish at the nationals.
On the women’s side, senior Justyna Mudy is primed to win a fifth individual national title by repeating as national cross country champ.
“This is definitely the best shot at winning the title we’ve ever had,” Shorter head coach Jay Stephenson said about the men’s team, which inexplicably dropped two spots in the NAIA Top 25 poll to No. 19 despite their SSAC championship performance. “It looks like we’ve got a shot at the top four but it’s going to be really tight up front.”
Stephenson and the Hawks are well aware of who they will line up against.
Southern Oregon, Wayland (Texas) Baptist and Shawnee State are the three top-ranked teams considered favorites along with Malone (Ohio), which won its third straight team title last year. The two teams Shorter ran against last month – Embry-Riddle and Bryan – bring strong runners to the race.
The Hawks boast plenty of weapons themselves as shown two weeks ago at the SSAC meet in Gulfport, Miss., when the Hawks claimed the top six spots in the final results. Freshman standout Paul Chelimo took first place in a time of 24:28, 55 seconds faster than his teammate and runner-up Eliud Ng'etich, who completed the 8k course in 25:23.
Peter Limo, who was a freshman on the 2008 squad that also had a perfect score to win the conference championship, placed third overall in 2010 with a time of 25:26, and Nicolas Toscan and Doug Kalmbach, placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in times of 25:39 and 26:32.
The overwhelming effort didn’t end there as Steven Rich finished sixth, Oscar Ogwaro finished eighth and Brenton Widener crossed the finish line in 14th place.
Perhaps the best moment of the race was the finish of the Hawks’ ninth runner, Louis Fields, known to his teammates as “Slim” because of his slender 6-foot-5 frame.
After the top eight Shorter runners concluded the race, they turned their attention to Fields as he wound up breaking the 30-minute barrier for the first time in an 8k race.
“After everyone else had finished they ran back to cheer him on and when he finished everybody went nuts,” Stephenson said. “That was one of their teams goals they set back in August – to go one through five. I could see that they were more relaxed before the race and know they’ll be the same way on Saturday.”
For Mudy, being relaxed when she runs has been her strength during her storied career.
Although she knows that this year’s field will be out to chase her down, Mudy and two of her teammates who qualified for the championship at the SSAC meet – Sarah Massey and Shea Spicher – will toe the starting line representing their team which was denied a return to the national race.
Despite finishing 19th last year in the program’s first appearance at the national championships, the Lady Hawks were overlooked for a possible at-large berth after finishing a mere eight points behind automatic qualifier Lee University at the SSAC Championships.
“It was disappointing,” Stephenson said about the absence of the total team at this week’s finale, noting that the NAIA will change the rating system and how national berths are given next year. “But Justyna, Sarah and Shea have a good attitude about it.”
Mudy’s return comes after a season that saw her come back from a broken foot she suffered last May in the final 200 meters of the 5,000-meter final she won at the NAIA Track and Field National Championships, the fourth individual national title in her career.
“It’s a deep field this year so it will be a tough race for her,” Stephenson said, pointing out that Azusa Pacific alone has three runners who could challenge Mudy. “But she’s definitely were she needs to be right now.”
That was evident at the SSAC meet when she won the race by 59 seconds, covering the 5k course in Gulfport, Miss., in 17:15. It was the senior's fifth event victory of the season.
Stephenson said Mudy isn’t pressured as evident in a conversation he had with her about last year’s first place finish and the third place finish she earned at the national meet two years ago.
“She was jokingly saying she wanted to finish second so she can say she finished one, two and three in the championships,” the coach said. “That’s her goal this season – a top two finish.”
All of Shorter’s runners, Stephenson pointed out, do have the experience and the talent to return to Shorter with some national honors.
“You look at giving a 100 percent effort spread out over the race,” he said. “Time is not an element in a championship race. You have to focus on what you’re doing, not get distracted and adjust as the race goes on.
“I really think all of them are ready to do that.”
