A tale of two teams

TERRE HAUTE -- For the first time in the IU's history both the No. 15 men and No. 20 women's cross country teams competed in the NCAA Championships Monday.\nThe meet was a double win for the women's team. The team bettered their ranking by six spots for a 14th place finish and they also defeated rival Michigan, who finished in 15th place.\nThe women have feuded with Michigan since last year's indoor track season where they were narrowly defeated at the Big Ten Championships.\n"I think it also has a lot to do with us being better than them but just not having five girls on at the same time," coach Judy Wilson said.\nThe women's team is one of the most improved in the nation this year. They finished fourth in Districts after a 12th place performance last year. This was also the first season the team has qualified for the NCAA Championships since 1990.\n"It's been an unbelievable year," Wilson said. "I told the girls we could place in the top 15 if things fell into place."\nThe week was extra-special for Wilson as earlier this week, she gave birth to a baby boy, Hunter.\nThe women relied all season on youth and the young runners pulled through in the biggest meet. Three true freshmen, Jessica Gall (113th), Lindsay Hattendorf (145th) and Kelly Siefker (247th), ran for the Hoosiers. Sophomore Mindy Peterson led the way for the team with a 59th place finish. Juniors Audrey Giesler and Becky Obrecht and sophomore Amber Miller also placed for the Hoosiers, finishing in 77th, 153rd and 235th, respectively. \nFive of the seven girls set new personal records for the eight-kilometer race.\n"It takes a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck," Wilson said.\nLuck, however, was not on the men's side Monday. They came in hoping for a top-15 finish but placed 25th.\n"It's about as close to a meltdown as you could have," coach Robert Chapman said. "I feel really bad for the guys because they did everything they could do."\nNo. 11 Central Michigan, who the team lost by only one point to at Districts, finished ninth in the meet.\nThe men were led by freshmen John (77th) and Sean Jefferson(91st) with times of 30:57 and 31:04, respectively, over the ten kilometer course. The men's team followed the women's example and ran with four freshmen in their top seven. Eric Redman (168th) and Stephen Haas (205th) joined the Jefferson twins in the team's top seven. Also running for the team were juniors Bart Phariss and Nathan Purcell and sophomore Tom Burns, who finished in 196th, 215th and 178th place respectively.\nChapman said that he was not sure what caused the team's dismal performance but said that experience may have came into play. Only Phariss and Purcell have NCAA Championship meet experience and the meet is far bigger than any team has ran earlier this season.\nThe team ran impressively all season, including a fourth place finish at Districts a week ago. \nChapman said it was just a matter of an off day with bad timing.\n"I was shocked," Redman said. "It was different than any other race I've ever ran in. I didn't know my place or anything."\nRedman said the experience of running in the meet will benefit him for the future as he will have a better idea for a race strategy.\nBoth teams will be able to use the season to move forward in the future. Neither team graduates any runners and each have several young runners leading the team.\n"This is just our warm-up," Wilson said. "Who knows where we could be next year"