Hoosiers head to Terre Haute

Today marks the 65th running of the Indiana Intercollegiates as the No. 18 women and No. 17 men's cross country teams travel to Terre Haute to compete on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course. This is the same course that hosted the 2002 NCAA National Championship meet in which the women's team finished 14th. \nThe IU women finished second to Purdue last year in the Indiana Intercollegiates, held on the IU Cross Country Course. Junior Mindy Peterson helped to lead the Hoosiers last year with a first place finish and a time of 19:02, on the 5-kilometer course.\nPeterson said that the experience gained from the NCAA Championship meet should help the team in their quest to go back to the national championship meet this season.\n"We made an impact last year on the national scene and this year we are looking forward to go back there and trying to make a name for Indiana," Peterson said.\nCoach Judy Wilson said that the one of the strategies for the team this weekend is to get senior Audrey Giesler, Peterson, and sophomore Lindsay Hattendorf to run together.\n"We are going to try to have those three run together through 3 or 4k," Wilson said. "Get to the 3 or 4k mark, and then go. Whatever happens happens."\nIn last year's Indiana Intercollegiates, Giesler led the race for most of the way, but made a wrong turn at approximately the 4k mark, and finished the race with a 13th place finish and a time of 19:28. Hattendorf finished fourth with a time of 19:09.\nThe Hoosier men have won the last two meets and have owned the tournament over the last nine years, winning six times. IU particularly dominated last year's meet with six of their seven varsity runners in the top 10. This year the Hoosiers expect more of the same results according to sophomore Eric Redman, who placed seventh as the IU's fifth man at last year's meet.\n"We should go out there and win this meet," Redman said. "It should be a good meet, but we definitely expect to win. This meet should be a good starting point to see where we are at. We are taking it seriously, but at the same time it is the first meet of the season."\nAlthough the Hoosiers are the only top 25 team competing in the meet, they are not the only top 25 team in Indiana. No. 18 Notre Dame and No. 22 Butler will not compete in this year's Indiana Intercollegiate meet for unknown reasons. Redman knows that the meet would be a lot tougher with these two schools there.\n"Notre Dame and Butler are definitely two of the top teams in the state, along with us,"Redman said. "Them not being there does not bother us though, we are still going to go out there and run hard."\nThe women's race 5K race starts at 4:30, and the men's 8K race starts at 5:15. \n-- Contact staff writers Steve Slivka or Alex Witteveld at smslivka@indiana.edu pawittev@indiana.edu.