Women's: Team looks for bid to national meet

Looking to finalize an NCAA tournament berth, the IU women's cross country team will play host to the NCAA Great Lakes Regional at 12:15 p.m. Saturday at the IU golf course.\nComing off a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten meet, the Hoosiers will attempt to finalize their résumé and receive a bid to nationals. \n"It's going to be a fun race because the pressure is on and it's important," second team All-Big Ten runner and sportsmanship award winner Lindsay Hattendorf said. "This is what is going to establish whether we go to nationals or not and it's going to be important for all of us to be on at the same day and just to go out there and have fun with it."\nMuch like the selection of the NCAA basketball tournament field, the 31-team national cross country field is selected through a system of both automatic and at-large bids. Eighteen automatic bids will be given to the top two teams in each of the nine regions. This leaves the rest of the teams to battle for the remaining 13 at-large berths. \nAt-large berths are awarded based on a system of quality wins. A quality win occurs when a team has beat an automatic qualifier at some point throughout the year. A team might also enter the field if it has beat several teams that possess quality wins.\nThirty-four women's teams from the Great Lakes region will look to earn such a bid Saturday.\n"It's going to be awesome because it's to our advantage and we know the course and no other teams besides Purdue and Ball State have run on that course in the past four years or so," Hattendorf said.\nAlong with knowing the layout of the course and having trained on it, the home course offers another advantage for the Hoosiers - the energy a pro-IU crowd brings. \n"It's always awesome to hear people yelling 'Go IU' and encouraging you," freshman Wendi Robinson said. "It would be really cool if there were a lot of people out there cheering us on. I think it definitely helps when you're feeling tired and there are people cheering for you."\nAccording to the team, not only will the event be a chance for the runners to have a big race on their home course, but it will also be an opportunity for local Bloomington residents and IU students to check out a highly entertaining event.\n"It's a very exciting event to see and it doesn't last long," IU head coach Judy Wilson said. "If you're 'Joe-runner' and you're trying to get motivated and get out the door, this is a good thing to see because it will do it for you"