Issue date: 10/27/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Chris Waller The men´s cross-country team stretches before a recent practice. This past weekend, the squad finished fourth out of six teams at the MIAA Conference meet. The women took third.

The women's cross-country team was cruising along nicely until it hit a speed bump at the conference meet.

After a strong first four meets of the season, the 'Dogs finished in third place out of only seven conference teams.

"What happens in this meet is a large number of people will run above what they've run all year," head coach John Cochrane said. "We did not do that. We ran like we did all year ... . Because we didn't run exceptional, we may have been fortunate to finish third."

Cochrane said he was disappointed with the third-place finish but also said that even if the team had run well, it still only would have finished third because of the great day Central Missouri State University had.

Leading the team as she has done all year, junior Jacquie Faust placed 10th place with a time of 22:37. Cochrane said freshman Danna Kelly's performance was solid as she finished 14th. Junior Meg Robertson finished 19th, sophomore Grace DelNero took 21st, Senior Sarah Armstrong came in 25th, and freshmen Allie Baker and Mandy Puhak finished 31st and 32nd, respectively.

Cochrane said the team made some tactical and mental errors, causing Faust to finish where she did.

"I think the biggest problem at conference was that other runners raced better than they normally did," Faust said. "I raced worse than I have all season."

The team now turns its attention to the South Regional Championship Meet in Abilene, Texas, on Nov. 5. That leaves two weeks for the team to work on the mental mistakes Cochrane said caused his runners not to run up to their potential.

"Over the years if you keep your focus, focus on your training and go into the regional meet mentally prepared, you can do well," Cochrane said. "The world doesn't end at the conference meet. We've had teams do better at regional meet than they did at conference."

Abilene Christian University (Texas) will be at the regional meet, who Cochrane said easily has the top three runners in the region easily. But the gap between their third and fourth runners is a large one. Cochrane said he expects possibly seven of his runners to finish ahead of their fourth runner, so a complete team effort will be important.

Continued...

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