IU's 5th place finish all but secures Nationals

The IU men's cross country squad entered its section of the weekend's Pre-National meet in Terre Haute in need of wins over quality teams, and also in need of another front-runner to join junior All-American Sean Jefferson, who finished fifth place overall.\nIU satisfied both of these goals in the course of the chilly 8,000-meter race. In terms of wins, the Hoosiers' sixth place finish ahead of highly ranked Iona University, the University of Georgia and Butler University more than likely solidifies an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships to be held in five weeks, also in Terre Haute. \n"Iona will probably be an automatic qualifier," said junior Eric Redman. "And we have wins over Georgia and (the University of) Florida and one of them will be an automatic, too. We did what we needed to do."\nRedman rounded out IU's scoring in 90th as its fifth man with a strong finish that saw him pass nearly 20 runners in the final 500 meters. Just ahead of him was junior Stephen Haas, who finished 77th after a fast start. Senior Tom Burns was IU's third runner, crossing the line in 48th with a final time of 24 minutes, 46 seconds despite a painful final 20 meters. \nIU found its other front runner back in familiar form. Junior All-American John Jefferson used a blistering finishing kick to pick off 30 runners in the final two kilometers and finish 15th. The race was a breakthrough for John, who spent the entirety of last year with a nagging knee injury.\n"I'd like to know what I ran the last 2K in," John Jefferson said. "I just kept picking people off."\nSean Jefferson, IU's top finisher, ran the way he has for the majority of the past three seasons. He used the early part of the race to gauge his strength and gathered himself for a big kick, emerging at the front of the race's chase pack for a fifth place finish with a final time of 24:10 (an average of 4:50 per mile). \nThe performance, while not a smashing success for every IU runner, showed what the team that Track & Field News magazine predicted as among the nation's Top 10 is preparing to do - namely, improve on its 12th place NCAA finish last year. Missing only one runner from that squad, and adding John Jefferson back into the mix, leaves IU with the ability to do so. The Hoosier men know that they have begun to find their legs and can achieve the goals they set at the end of last year's campaign. \n"We're in a good spot," Burns said. "We'll all be there when we need to be."\n-- Contact staff writer Rob DeWitte at rdewitte@indiana.edu.