This past weekend, the men’s cross-country team competed in the national cross-country championships in Terre Haute, Indiana, placing 31 out of 32 competing teams. This is the first time since 2015 that the men’s team as a whole has been sent to run in nationals. The men’s team heading to nationals consisted of eight runners, including three all-region title holders—seniors Grant Ackard, Joe Langridge and Finbar Martin—among the top 35 individual runners in the Division III Midwest Region. 

The men on the team have worked hard to get to this point at the end of the season. For both the men’s and women’s teams, the season starts the summer before the school year begins.  

“You can’t just start training once we get to school because you’re going to be behind,” Martin said. “Then, once we hit the actual season, once we are at school, we’re going to be racing. We’re going to be doing harder workouts, like fine-tuning, strength and speed work, so we can’t be building mileage up before that. The big key to having a good season is to run over the summer.”

The same can be said for Fifth-year Emma Odle, who qualified individually for the women’s team.  This is her second year in row that she qualified and competed at nationals. Out of 290 runners, Odle finished 52nd, which is an 18 spot difference from her last trip.

Throughout the past year, Odle has gained confidence in not only herself, but her running as well. Having a year of nationals under her belt prepared her even more for nationals the second time around. 

“Now I kind of know the feeling of getting to where I want to be,” Odle said. “Just go out and just hold on and do the best that you can do—I know what to expect.”

Both Odle and the men’s team had to ward off pressure going into nationals. Nationals is a big meet—there is a lot of pressure to do well at such a high level. With this in mind, it was important for the runners to not let the pressure get to them—to not be nervous and maintain the right mindset for running hard. 

“I think we want to show up and perform and beat a lot of teams that we have yet to beat this season,” Langridge said. “Mentally prepare by not getting too worked up about it because, at the end of the day, it’s just running. You kind of just have to get into the right mindset where you’re ready to run hard, but at the end of the day, you can’t let your mind take control and tell you that you’re not doing what you need to do.” 

To alleviate pressure, it helps to have teammates by their sides. Both the men’s and women’s teams as a whole have been super supportive of the runners who were sent down to nationals this past weekend. The collective teams put together a “fan van” that consisted of team members who were not competing but still wanted to be there to show support. 

“We’re bringing all the fellows, which is super exciting,” Martin said.