The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Conference Championships
Cross Country seeks Big 12 Conference title on Saturday
10.29.2015 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorns take on rivals in conference championship meet
Big 12 Championships Information
Women: 6000m | Men: 8000m
Time: 10 a.m. CT
Where: Oklahoma State Cross Country Course | Stillwater, Okla.
USTFCCCA Live Blog: http://bit.ly/1VSp5aa
Live Results | Course Maps | Big 12 Preview | USTFCCCA Preview |
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Longhorns are after their first Big 12 Conference title in cross country this weekend. Action starts at 10 a.m. Saturday in Stillwater, Oklahoma, at the Oklahoma State Cross Country Course with the women taking on the 6,000-meter course before the men run an 8K championship race.
Oklahoma State's men enter the conference championship as the No. 6 team in the nation and having won seven straight Big 12 titles. The Iowa State women have won four in a row and are No. 11 in the latest USTFCCCA Coaches Poll.
Texas Cross Country Coach Brad Herbster believes his team has the talent and depth to make a move at the Big 12 Championships on Saturday. The key to doing that will be executing the different race plans for each team and wearing Burnt Orange with pride.
"When the gun goes off, you're representing Texas, you're representing yourself, and you're representing everything that Texas represents. So understand that and get out and compete first and foremost," Herbster said. "Just don't let the race consume you with so many people or the importance of it; just get out there and compete. Have a good time and know that you only have four cross country conference (championships) in a lifetime, so take advantage of it."
Another thing the Longhorns may be able to take advantage of is weather conditions. Rain is expected in Stillwater on Friday during the day and overnight. With another slight chance on Saturday morning, the course conditions could be less than ideal and slow the pace and allow for tighter pack running.
Both the men and women are looking to rebound from performances at the Pre-Nationals Invitational in Louisville two weeks ago. The men finished 16th and the women fell back to 40th in a very large field. With fewer teams to compete against this weekend, Texas hopes to be able to make a move and perform well as a team.
Prior to Pre-Nats, the Longhorns had run strong as a team, and the men believe they can be in the mix come Saturday if they run like they have throughout the season and in workouts recently.
"Definitely we'd like to walk out of Stillwater with a conference championship. The men's cross country team has never won a conference championship so this is kind of unprecedented and we have a lot of odds stacked against us and a lot of competition. But the season's been going well," said men's sophomore Connor Hendrickson. "As a team, we've run together and we've shown through workouts and shown throughout the year that we can hang with some of the best. We think we can go into Stillwater and do some good things."
Fans can follow the action online with updates on Twitter from @Big12Conference and @UTexasTrack. The official hashtag for the championship meet is #Big12XC. The USTFCCCA also will be hosting a live blog on its website by pulling content from official team social media accounts and media members covering the race. A "National Results Wall" will be at ustfccca.org provided by CoverItLive and fans will be able to see live updates along with photos and more. Live results will be provided by DeltaTiming.com.
Texas Quotes
Coach Brad Herbster
On what he's been telling the team leading up to the Big 12 Championship race: It's not just another meet, it's the Big 12. But we've got to do what we do in practice every day, which is execute, work as a group, and get out there and compete first and foremost. The Big 12 meet is going to be much smaller than the meet we had last time with 45 teams. Now we go to about 10 teams. So that should work in our favor. It's a lot easier to pick people out that way, but at the same time, you got to get out there and compete as it is the Big 12 Championship.
On how he's gearing up the team after a disappointing finish at Pre-Nationals: Again, at practice they look great. It's just relax and transitioning what you're doing in practice over to the race every day. I'm not asking for them to do any more or any less, just get out there and compete.
On racing against Oklahoma State on their home turf: It's going to be great on both the men's and women's side. Especially on the men's side, it's going to be very competitive. Oklahoma State has the advantage of knowing that course very well. It goes to their benefit; they're a very good team. But we've got to step up and really challenge them at some point and we've got a plan in place and if the conference [race] can help that process, then great. But if not then we'll go after it ourselves.
On approaching the men's and women's races with separate game plans: Yeah, we have two totally different game plans because the men and the women are in two different spots with the teams that lead the conference: Iowa State on the women's side and Oklahoma State on the men's side. They just tend to run different races.
With the women's race, it's a little more of what you see is what you get. Everybody just goes after it right out of the gate. It's a 6k with some really good teams… we've got three or four nationally ranked teams in that field. So we just have to go in there and compete and do the best we can to really mix it up and place as high as we possibly can.
On the men's side, with Oklahoma State, they always contend for that title… it's either them or Colorado. So for us, it's really just stepping up and executing the game plan. I think we have a good plan in place to at least challenge them and make sure that we're competing hard.
Sophomore Connor Hendrickson
On facing defending Big 12 champion Oklahoma State on their home course: I think Oklahoma State is going for their eighth straight championship. So like I said, obviously there's a lot of stellar competition and it's not going to be easy. But we're just hoping to go out there, show our best and do what we can to bring one home here.
On coming back to practice after Pre-Nationals at Louisville: We did what we wanted: we got out really hard but we just kind of fell apart. There were over 300 people and a lot of us, including me, were overwhelmed by the numbers and just not used to that scenario in that environment.
Coming off that week in the training, we refocused and had a good reality check that we needed and I think that all of the energy has channeled really well and I think we're poised to do very well.
Freshman Alex Cruz
On her feelings heading into her first Big 12 Championship race: Obviously, being that I'm a freshman and coming into such a really big university and being that it's actually conference (championships), a lot of things are going through my mind. But actually it's not really that much being nervous, it's actually more excitement than ever. I'd really like to contribute to this team and I feel like I actually can. There are a lot of girls that have a lot of potential and I feel that going into this big meet we actually have a plan of going out and placing as many runners as we can into the top 15. And being that we have that many girls that we have, we could actually win this meet. And it's great going in there and going in there very excited, not really knowing what to expect but always being open-minded to the outcome that might come out for us.
On racing against fewer teams at the Big 12 Championship compared to Pre-Nationals: I guess it could make us a little more comfortable. Pre-Nationals is something else that the outcome wasn't all that well, but that's something we've pushed behind us and use as experience going into this meet. We know what to expect and what we're capable of going in, and I feel that the outcome we got during Pre-Nationals wasn't as well as what we expected, but now that we know what we're capable of and what we've been working on these past couple weeks, from that we've learned, what we need to work on and working together as a team and now we can accomplish these things going in.
On setting up a game plan for the Big 12 Championship and what it will take to stick to that game plan: Well what we've been working on is staying together, seeing one another and probably just working as a team and constantly pushing each other up in the race. I noticed one thing during the race at Pre-Nats, and it was that I was a little overwhelmed about was the amount of girls there were, and I could see some of the girls over the distance but the thing was that every time I would try to make a surge, I could never get to that point. And I would always think back and think 'Okay, I'm think I'm doing fine' but no; in that moment you have to keep pushing forward and if you see your teammates falling back, push them up and just speak a couple of words of encouragement, which is what we did during that meet. It's those little words that count, because it could actually make a big difference within that amount of time. So that could be another way of helping us get together and get to that point and finishing strong.
Players Mentioned
