Team takes on regional rivals

The No. 23 men's cross country team will serve host to the Indiana Intercollegiates this Friday. The meet has a storied past as this will be the 64th time the annual race has been held. Though it is only the second meet of the year for the Hoosiers, it will be the team's final home meet of the season. \nThe Hoosiers have hosted the meet 14 times and this will be the third consecutive season it will take place at the IU Cross Country Course. Although the cross country season is traditionally focused on gearing up for later meets, the team has not decreased their training schedule for this weekend. \nSophomore Thomas Burns downplayed the meet's overall significance, but said it would help the team in preparing for later competitions. \n"It's sort of just a meet for bragging rights," Burns said. "We will train smart and keep the big picture in mind."\nThe open race begins at 3:45 p.m. and the men's 8k race will kick off at 5:10. Both races are at the IU Cross Country Course.\nThe Hoosiers will receive solid competition from the talented field, which includes Notre Dame, Butler and Purdue. The meet will be the first for the Hoosiers at the eight-kilometer distance, and it will also provide valuable experience for the Hoosier's young corps of runners. The team has 12 freshman and sophomore runners, including four redshirt freshman.\nIncluded in this group are three-time all-state honoree John Jefferson, his twin brother Sean Jefferson, who was 31st at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championship as a junior, 1999 Footlocker finalist Stephan Haas and Eric Redman who earned all-state honors in track and cross country his junior and senior years. \nCoach Robert Chapman will use the team's performance in the meet to gauge the progress of the younger members of the squad. For many of those younger runners, this will be their first real test against high-level opponents, although not as high as they will see in later meets.\n"This meet will give the younger runners and everyone else a chance to work out any problems we're having before we get to the upcoming bigger meets," sophomore Bart Phariss said.\nThe Hoosiers competed in their first meet Aug. 30 at the Indiana Open. John Jefferson and Phariss took second and third respectively and five other Hoosiers finished in the top ten. Today's race is the team's first meet since the Indiana Open. Sophomore Kurtis George said the down time is necessary for the team.\n"You can't race every weekend. It takes too much out of you. You'd be done," George said. "The way our schedule plays out, you have a couple of weeks to condition, log some good mileage and stay healthy."\nChapman said this meet will be the team's first step in asserting itself as a dominant national program.\n"We're hopeful this season is one where we can take another step as a program," Chapman said. "Our mission is to see if we can take the next step and become a consistent national power"