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Women's XC united on eve of NAIA National Championship
By Jim O'Hara
NAIA Women's Cross Country National Championship
Saturday, Nov. 19 • Vancouver, Wash.
ROME – They've got the leadership, the talent, the depth and the desire. More than anything, however, they've got each other.
All of these elements will once again come together Saturday when the Shorter University women's cross country team, fresh from an impressive run to the Southern States Athletic Conference championship, lines up for the second time in three years at the NAIA National Championship at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, Wash.
"They've spent a lot of time together running and socially outside of running," Shorter head coach Jay Stephenson said of his Lady Hawks, who will try to better the 19th place finish the program achieved at the 2009 national meet. "It takes a tremendous team bond to do all of these workouts.
"They got on board halfway through the season and started coming together as a team."
If Stephenson wanted proof of the strength of his team, he got it at the recent SSAC meet when the Lady Hawks, who head West having received votes throughout the season in the NAIA Top 25 Poll, cruised to the title with all seven runners finishing in the top 25, three of which earned All-SSAC honors by placing in the top 10.
"It was exciting to win by as much as we did," said Stephenson. "We're better than we were as a team last year. Sarah and Shea continued to develop and we had a great recruiting class."
Setting the pace in Shorter's run to the SSAC crown have been senior Sarah Massey and sophomore Shea Spicher, who finished second and third respectively at the SSAC Championships and have previously competed in the national meet.
Massey, a native of Acworth, led the charge at the conference meet in Clinton, Miss., when she finished second overall running the 5K layout in 18:14. With an SSAC Runner of the Week award under her belt this fall, Massey is making her third straight appearance at the national meet with her best showing coming last year when she was 85th.
Spicher continued to serve as one of Shorter's top point producers when the runner from Grayson finished just behind Massey at the conference meet taking third place with a time of 18:26. In her national meet debut last year, Spicher finished 167th and is setting her sights on a higher showing this time around.
Sophomore Katie Rutledge of Taylorsville rounded out Shorter's top 10 finishers at the conference meet grabbing ninth place with a time of 19:39 and joined Massey and Spicher in earning All-Conference honors
The Lady Hawks backed those performances with more teamwork as junior Rachel McDaniel of Spokane, Wash., (20:04) and freshman Ashley Logan of Jasper (20:05) placed 11th and 12th, respectively, to round out the scoring. Freshman Hannah Turner of LaFayette (15th) and junior Emma DeBeaucoudrey of France, a former member of Shorter's tennis team, capped the balanced team output.
All seven will wear Shorter's colors this weekend when the Lady Hawks go toe-to-toe with the top teams and runners in the nation.
Heading into the meet as the top-ranked team is Azusa Pacific, but all eyes will be on defending champion California State-San Marcos as it guns for its third straight national championship. The individual title is also up for grabs as two-time defending national champion and former Shorter great Justyna Mudy has graduated.
As far as Stephenson is concerned, the Lady Hawks will not be intimidated thanks to having cut their teeth on some major meets this season.
"We've been in big races this year for a purpose," Stephenson said, noting Shorter's appearances in a 32-team meet in Louisville and a 40-team event in Fayetteville, Ark. "They should be ready to race."
And do so with every element they've developed as individuals and as a team.
"Before every meet they get together for a team game plan, but when they're out there they have their own game plan," said Stephenson. "They're trying to treat it like it's just another race as much as possible."
