IU to host Indiana Open this weekend

Though it's only September, Saturday's Indiana Open has all the makings of a preview to the Big Ten Championships for the IU women's cross country team.\nWith a field including Purdue, Butler and the University of Michigan, the Hoosiers will try to understand their weaknesses compared to the other Big Ten schools.\n"We wanted to see where the other Big Ten schools are in relation to where we are so that we can make some notes on how we can run better in the (Big Ten Championships)," said IU coach Judy Wilson. "Last week's race was more of a workout, where we tried to run an even tempo, where this week, we're going to go out and race."\nFor the second week in a row, the meet will take place at the Hoosiers' home course. However, the team will run 12 to 14 runners instead of the five that ran at last week's IU Community 5K. Like last week's race, the meet will not be scored. \n"We're not scoring the meet so that the teams can let some of their possible redshirt runners participate unattached," Wilson said. "It's too early for us to know who we want to redshirt and who we don't want to redshirt."\nThe Hoosiers plan to run some of their more experienced runners, including juniors Jessica Gall and Lindsay Hattendorf. Freshman Stephanie Greer will be the only top-seven runner for the team who participated in last week's meet.\nThis week should be the Hoosiers' first test of the season as they face the reigning Big Ten Champion Michigan, who returns four of its top five runners from last season. \n"I'm hoping that we can go out and be fairly close to their top five," Wilson said.\nThe Hoosiers will race their top runners, Wilson said. While the team recognizes the quality of competition at the meet, there is not as much of an emphasis on the impact the meet will have on the season.\n"We tend to get better toward the end of the season," Wilson said. "So where we're going to be in regards to Michigan doesn't matter too much to me how the numbers fall. I want to be able to look and see what we can do to get better"