Wildcats prepare to run at NCAA championships
MARQUETTE — After placing fourth at the NCAA regionals this past weekend, it was still up in the air if the Northern Michigan women’s cross country team would secure their first berth in the NCAA championship since 2005.
“The runners ran really well. Of course, we knew we had a chance going in that we would make it to the national championships, but we didn’t know for sure. There was kind of a lot of suspense waiting to find out for sure if we made it so it was a really excited day for us because the last two years, we’ve been really close to the national championships and we finally get to go this year,” head coach Jenny Ryan said.
“There was a point right after the race…thought we weren’t going to make it and we were all pretty disappointed. And then when we were doing our cool down, all the coaches started running towards us and we found out we made it so that was really exciting,” said senior runner Megan Edic.
“Well I’m a freshman so this is my first college cross country season and obviously it’s been pretty good so far and we’ve been really successful so it’s really great to be a part of a team that is like that good,” freshman Sarah Goble said.
The Wildcats come into the tourney ranked 11th in the nation and they are ready to have a good showing on Saturday.
“I think going into it. We’re well prepared and we’re confident in the training that we’ve done with Jenny. We’ve done all that we’ve can and I think that we’ll come out pretty on top for being so on the bottom. People don’t expect us to be where we’re going to be. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” freshman Hannah Lonergan said.
“It will be really good competition, but we’re ready to go. We’ve been training well. We’ve been racing well all season so it’s been an exciting season for us and now we’re just going to go there and see what we can do because I think everyone is ready to race, ready to have their best race of the year,” said Ryan.
The championship run will be this Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.