Hoosiers finish 8th at Pre-NCAA's

Sophomore Jessica Gall and her teammates were looking to break their racing slump this past Saturday at the NCAA Pre-National meet.\n"We've had good workouts but we hadn't been running up to our potential," Gall said. \nWith their eighth place finish among a competitive field, the Hoosiers hope to have broken the slump but still know there is room for improvement. \n"I think they did good a job, but there were a couple of girls who were not feeling their best," IU assistant coach Sandy Tecklinburg said. \nIndiana State hosted the meet at its home course in Terre Haute. Because of the large number of participating teams, the meet featured two women's races. The Hoosiers ran in the 'blue' race at 11 a.m. with 36 other teams. The other women's race, the 'white' race, had 36 teams participating, following the 'blue' race at 11:35 a.m. \nWith their eighth place score of 309 points, the team narrowly missed the seventh place Princeton University Tigers by 4 points. \nGall ran in the top 30 for the first third of the race and then the eighth through 20th place runners broke into a pack and ran together until about the 4K mark. \n"I was in the top 15 and then a couple girls passed me at the end," Gall said. She finished 15th in a time of 21 minutes and 1.1 seconds. Seventeen seconds later junior Kelly Siefker crossed the line in a time of 21:18.6 to finish 27th.\nSenior Mindy Peterson, who has been battling a sore throat, had enough strength left to have a strong finish. \n"With a K left I heard people screaming I was in 83rd," Peterson said. \nShe then picked off several people in the last kilometer to finish 68th in a time of 21:54.3. \n"I was a little more fatigued than usual but it's encouraging that I pulled through," Peterson said.\nRounding out the top five for the IU women were sophomore Kristin Whitezell finished 76th in a time of 21:59.5 and junior Lindsay Hattendorf ran 22:22.5 to finish 123rd.\nWith its eighth place finish, the women beat several ranked opponents. No. 16 Baylor, No. 18 Columbia, No. 23 Idaho and No. 25 UCLA all fell victim to the Hoosiers. In the latest FinishLynx pole released Oct. 11, the IU women were not ranked. The newest rankings come out today.\n"I think we should be ranked, but being ranked isn't a huge thing," Tecklinburg said. "What matters is that we proved we can run with the teams that are ranked."\nStanford, who currently is the No. 1 team in the nation, won the race with a mere 49 points. Notre Dame, University of North Carolina, Brigham Young University and Georgia rounded out the top five. In the white division, the University of Colorado was victorious while the University of Michigan finished second and Arizona State University finished third. \nThe Hoosiers will take next weekend off and will not compete again until the following weekend Sunday, Oct. 31 in the Big Ten Championships. \n-- Contact staff writer Ryan Corazza at rcorazza@indiana.edu.