Runners enter Regional meet with different priorities

Just five years ago, the IU men's cross country team only hoped they would qualify for the NCAA Championships. This Saturday, instead of taking a last-ditch chance at qualifying and hoping luck falls on the Hoosiers' side, they will run with confidence, knowing that the 10,000-meter race at Eastern Michigan University is just a formality. \n"The team has reached the level where, year in, year out, they're one of the best teams in the country," said IU graduate and 2003 cross country All-American Chris Powers. "Regional is important, but NCAAs is the time for that breakthrough race."\nTeams approach the Great Lakes Regional meet in two ways. One type of team arrives knowing its season is at an end and that the careers of the team's seniors have come to a close. The team's top runners abandon the team and race to qualify individually. IU is no longer this type of team.\nThe other type of team qualifies for NCAAs every year. This type of team can run conservatively at Regionals and qualify at-large for NCAAs on the strength of early season wins. Armed with a top-10 ranking, this is the sort of team IU has become. \n"We're just going to sit in the pack," said junior All-American Sean Jefferson, the team's top runner all season. "We don't need to do anything spectacular to qualify, so we're just going to make sure no one gets away from us."\nIU has a number of athletes able to race in a front pack likely to be laden with All-Americans, including the nation's top team, the Wisconsin Badgers. \nTypically the race is tactical, inviting a slower, consistent pace that should allow most of IU's runners to settle in and conserve energy for the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute Nov. 22. \nThe Regional provides runners with a chance to polish racing strategies in preparation for NCAAs. Junior All-American John Jefferson said he plans to take full advantage of the race to gain more confidence in his resurgent season and plan his NCAA race.\n"I'm going to go out a little faster and run with Sean earlier in the race," John Jefferson said. "I want to be ready for NCAAs because the pace is usually faster, so this race will be good to find the right people to run with."\nSo much of collegiate cross country is tactical, as each team devises the best strategy to finish as well as possible. For some teams this means racing in a pack, willing weaker runners to hang on as long as possible. For others, it means letting the squads' top runners race at the front to score as few points as possible. In cross country, the lowest points (determined by finishing places) wins. \nLooking ahead to NCAAs, IU will probably use a strategy where two runners pair up and attack the race together. Aside from the Jeffersons, who are veteran pair-racers, IU's pairs will likely be senior Tom Burns and junior Stephen Haas and juniors Eric Redman and Charlie Koeppen. \nSaturday provides a chance to practice that dynamic -- a luxury only perennial powerhouses have -- one IU is beginning to understand. \n-- Contact staff writer Rob DeWitte at rdewitte@indiana.edu.