After back-to-back wins for both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams in their first two meets, the Hoosiers travel out of state this weekend for their first competition outside of Bloomington.
IU will compete in the Rim Rock Farm Classic in Kansas against Central Missouri, Oral Roberts, Rice and the University of Missouri-Kansas City on Oct. 1. The men’s 8K race is set to begin at 9 a.m. followed by the women’s 6K at 10 a.m.
“We want to win the meet,” senior Jason Crist said. “We can get a lot done in Kansas, and our main focus besides winning is our top five staying together as a group and try to get everyone to finish as close to each other as possible.”
The IU men dropped one spot in the US Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association rankings this past week after a week off from their last meet. The Hoosiers currently sit at No. 14 and are looking to make a statement win to go back up next week.
“We dropped a spot when we didn’t race, so I thought that was kind of interesting, but we can definitely make a statement if we do what we need to do,” Crist said.
Even though the men won their first two meets without much trouble, Crist said there’s always room for improvement. The team has focused on staying together in practice to ensure they get the most points possible in each race instead of sending a couple guys up front while the rest of the group falls behind.
On the girls’ side, Kansas sits at No. 26 in the USTFCCCA rankings. The Hoosiers are unranked nationally and sixth in the region despite two wins to begin the season.
“The rankings are definitely motivation,” sophomore Katherine Receveur said. “We’re in a tough region, but we’re going to try to run our best this weekend. This will be the first time we will line up together as a group.”
Receveur led all Hoosiers with a second overall finish in the Indiana Intercollegiate meet and said she has noticed how the younger members of the team have stepped up recently.
“They push us to be our best, and I think that we push them as well,” she said. “We all see their potential, so hopefully in the coming years we can be stronger than ever.”
IU Coach Ron Helmer said this meet is a step up from previous meets and is looking forward to traveling for the first time this season.
The IU men are the only ranked team at the meet this weekend, so Helmer said he wants to get a win and keep improving. He said he isn’t focused on rankings as much as improving and wants the team to gel more and develop chemistry.
“We’re a lot better since the beginning of the season, so we’ll hopefully turn that improvement into good results this weekend,” he said. “It’s a course that’s been run on a lot, so teams have run on that course before and know the layout.”
IU can see how it stacks up against quality competition this weekend to see where it is competitively and physically.
“We can use this meet as a measuring stick, and, depending on how well we perform, we can definitely make a statement,” Helmer said. “We’re just trying to get better and let the statements take care of themselves.”
