Team hopes for national impact

The IU Women's Cross Country team will head to Terre Haute today for their first NCAA Championship appearance since 1990. \nJunior Audrey Giesler said she is pleased with how much more competitive the team is this year.\n"Last (cross country) season was frustrating," Giesler said in a statement. "We worked hard during indoor and outdoor track, and picked up some momentum. A lot of us stayed in Bloomington last summer to train, and we have a great group of freshmen. They have made a huge impact, and we have such great team chemistry. That's been the difference."\nThe Hoosiers made it to nationals after finishing fourth in their region last weekend at West Lafayette. The top two teams in each regional get automatic bids into nationals but the Hoosiers along with four other teams from the region received at large bids to the NCAAs. \nOne advantage the Hoosiers will have this weekend is the course they are running on, which is the Wabash Family Sports Center. Just last month the Hoosiers ran at the same course for the Pre-NCAA 6k Invitational. The team finished eighth overall out of 38 teams at that meet. \nFreshman Lindsay Hattendorf said she thinks that having raced there previously will be an advantage.\n"We've trained and competed on the course there, so we can visualize key points of the race," she said. \nGiesler said she expects a strong performance.\n"It's exciting, especially considering where we were a year ago," Giesler said in a statement. "On one hand, we've taken a big step forward. But now, it's on to that next step. We want to close the year with a strong performance."\nThe women's 6K race will start at noon.