IU squad anticipates tight race at Great Lakes Regional

With one day until the Great Lakes Regional race in Bowling Green, Ohio, the IU men's cross country team hopes for a solid finish and a ticket to the NCAA Championships. \nThe Hoosiers will take on No. 1-ranked Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Michigan, Butler and others at Bowling Green University. In total, more than 400 athletes are expected to participate.\nThe top two teams in each region qualify for nationals Nov. 20 in Terre Haute. The remaining squads are selected by the number of wins they accumulated during the season and their finish at the regional race. The total number of qualifying teams fluctuates each year between two and eight, typically settling at four or five.\n"For us at IU, our focus is to make it to the National Championships every year. It's tradition," volunteer assistant coach Stephen Haas said. "The focal point of our year right now is to get there. They know what they have to do to make it, and now they've got to go out there and do it."\nHaas said the course's flatness will allow the team to be more aggressive during the race. He said he will depend on freshman Jordan Kyle and sophomores Tim McLeod and Mark Fruin to be the three front runners for the 10K race. Junior Brennon Plotner will benefit from the course's flatness, Haas said, while senior Marcus Aguilar's agility as a strength and distance-type runner will keep him near the front of the pack.\nAlthough both Plotner and Aguilar are veteran regional runners, there will still be some nerves, Plotner said.\n"It's going to be a little nerve-racking ... I think Marcus and I are the only ones (who have run in the regional race before)," he said.\nRepresenting IU Saturday will be Kyle, Fruin, Aguilar, McLeod, Plotner, freshman Darryl Stevenson and senior George McArdle. Having run his best race at the Big Ten Championships Oct. 29, McLeod said in comparison to IU's hilly terrain, Bowling Green's gold course will be flat and fast. \nRain is expected Saturday, and McLeod, Plotner and Haas said that is a definite advantage to the team.\n"We like to sit back and move up later," Haas said. "With rain, the surface allows us to get closer to the front and puts us in a better race position. We've had success at both the Big Ten (Championships) and the George Mason Invitational each time we sat back."\nAs far as group running goes, Haas said early in races a lot of team members ran together, which helped ensure a tight time difference among the first five Hoosiers to cross the finish line at the George Mason Invitational. The same goes for McLeod, who said his friendship with Kyle keeps his competitive edge.\n"We do almost all of our workouts together, and when I'm feeling bad in a race, I'll look ahead and go after him," McLeod said. "It's good knowing that if he's strong enough to keep going, I'd better be. Hopefully, that will help during the race."\nNov. 2 McLeod garnered attention of his own after receiving Big Ten Sportsmanship honors for cross country. He is one of 21 cross country student-athletes to be honored and is now in the running for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award, which will be announced at the end of the school year.\nAs far as anticipation goes, McLeod concluded that the entire team is starting to feel fresh in time for the race. Prior to the sounding gunshot, he said his nerves remain calm on the line. It is not until the race commences, McLeod said, that he feels it.\n"I wouldn't say I'm nervous as much as anxious," McLeod said. "It's when you look around and the fans are screaming and cheering and you think, 'Wow.' It's hard to get that feeling when you're just training"