The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Penn State Open
Cross Country face familiar foes at Penn State
10.13.2016 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorns take on ranked conference rivals
USTFCCCA National Results Wall
AUSTIN, Texas – The final test of the regular season is here for the Texas Cross Country team as the Longhorns will face ranked teams and familiar Big 12 Conference foes at the Penn State Open on Friday. Action gets underway at 10:30 a.m. CT from the Blue-White Golf Course. A total of four ranked teams on each side is slated to compete.
Texas enters the meet with the men receiving votes in the latest USTFCCCA Coaches Poll. The Longhorn women dropped out of the others receiving votes list after the last competition. The Penn State Open will include fellow Big 12 rival Oklahoma State. The Cowboys rank No. 9 in the nation with the Cowgirls coming in at No. 14. West Virginia's women are also in the field and ranked No. 30.
That stiff competition of ranked Big 12 teams will help the Longhorns gauge where they stand against some key rivals heading into the conference championship meet in two weeks.
"We really want to have a good team performance on both the men and the women. Notre Dame, we didn't execute as well through the one through five positions," said Coach Brad Herbster. "This time around, we've really got to stay on it. It's our last race before conference and it's really important to kind of transition into conference with confidence."
Also in the field with be the Ole Miss Rebels. The men rank no. 10 in the nation coming off their win at the Notre Dame Invitational two weeks ago. The Ole Miss women are No. 25 in the nation.
Senior Sandie Raines is back in action for the Longhorns after she missed the Notre Dame Invitational due to illness. She is ready to get back on the trail and set the tone heading into the conference championship.
"I'm really ready. I mean, (getting sick) was a blessing in disguise because it helped me increase my mileage and increase my training when I came back, it re-motivated me for this season," Raines said. "But I'm really ready to actually race. Our home meet was fun, but I'm excited to have some competition and run in some nice weather and get to travel again."
On the men's side, sophomore Alex Rogers wants to prove they can be a contender at the conference meet by improving on their finish from two weeks ago and posting a strong finish this week against ranked teams.
"What we have to do is just be strong through the entire race; and once we do that, then I feel like we're going to start establishing ourselves as more of a national powerhouse that I know we can be," Rogers said. "We're shooting for a win as a team. I'm shooting for a win as an individual; and if we can follow that in place, I feel like we can do a very good job."
Live results will not be available during the meet. Fans are encouraged to keep up with the action online with the USTFCCCA National Results Wall. The USTFCCCA will pull content from social media accounts of teams and media and compile it in one blog space to provide coverage of the meet. Fans can find a link to the results wall at ustfccca.org.
Additional Quotes
Cross Country Coach Brad Herbster
On how far off the team is from getting to where they want to be: I don't think we're that far, actually. I think we just didn't get out and race the way we needed to at Notre Dame. I think Notre Dame was a wakeup call to some to make sure that we're getting out and establishing our position early and being productive. I think overall in practice we look great, but in past years we've looked great in practice too, but not as controlled of an effort as we look now. So I feel really confident going into Penn State that we're going to have a great showing and come back with some good results.
On the depth of the team: The men are a little deeper and I hope to show that this weekend. We'll put Garek Bielaczyc, a freshman, in and put Connor Hendrickson in and we'll take Allen Sumrall out, so having that mixture will kind of show the depth. But I think when Nate [Moore] pushes up and Spencer [Dodds] pushes up, you'll really see the depth of the group. On the women's side, we add in Sandie Raines of course. That's a big factor because she's very talented but she's also one of the best in the country. She's just got to establish herself early and kind of bring the women up with her and not push back. Last year at Pre-Nats at this time, about 365 days to go, we didn't get out and we kind of moved to the back. This time we've got to make sure we're in the front.
On the strategy during meets: I think some places or some teams will definitely have a kind of free-for-all mentality. For us, it can't be that. We know what our strength is and our strength is running as a group. We've got to have our frontrunners run up front and we've got to have the pack on the women's side about 40 seconds, 45 seconds back, and the men can't be less than 50 seconds back.
On improvements since the Notre Dame meet: I think the biggest thing is just regrouping and understanding, 'Man, we've got to get out of these bigger races.' Part of the challenge in big races, especially in a course like Notre Dame where the course shifts left to right and turns, there's a lot of maneuvering going on. If you're not in the right place at the right time, you're going to get left out. I think we saw that at Notre Dame. At the home meet, you saw the first two home meets where we were able to move around as free as we want, and that's easy to do. But now we go to Penn State, there's some really good teams, but it will be a good reflection of conference overall because there's some really good teams.
Sophomore, Alex Rogers
On the type of challenges presented by the weekend: Well the challenges that are going to be presented to us are the other teams competing and ourselves, so we've just got to get out there to the front of the race and just dominate from the gun and then finish all the way through. We've got to work together through 5-to-8K and if we can do that we can accomplish a lot of things.
On preparation for the Big 12: It is kind of just a preview of what they're going to see. We're not at full strength, (Oklahoma State is) not at full strength but we're throwing a really good group of guys at them and I know they're going to do the same because they're not going to want to lose to us and we want to beat them.
On missing out on top 10 at Notre Dame and preparation for Friday from then: We geared up the training a little more intense. I was just a few seconds short of cracking that top 10 and with the training that we've done I've got my confidence back up so I really feel that I can make a run for a top five finish at this race.
On not being full strength yet: As a team, we're not bringing in all our best guys yet because we don't have to put all our cards out on the table. So we have a lot of guys who can contribute. This could be the Big 12 conference team, it might not and that's just how we're going to play, we're going to play it by ear and see how things are looking through the upcoming weeks until the final show.
On the depth of the squad: This is the deepest team that I've ever had, that the older guys have ever seen. So if one guy falls off we can be assured that one other man is coming. He's going to step up to the plate and take care of business when he needs to care of business, whether he's having a good day or bad day. We're just going to go out there and compete and the depth is outrageous with the recruiting class that we have and the sophomore, junior class.
Senior, Sandie Raines
On looking ahead to the meet: I'm really excited. I'm excited for the cold weather, for the fall and also for competitive needs, that's not so big but it's good to get in a good effort before championship season, really fine tune the last few things before Big 12.
On how the weekend will benefit preparations for Big 12: It's pretty much the same kind of situation as Big 12 is, so it's a really good preview of how we're going to do. It's a little bit smaller, but a competitive meet, which is just what Big 12 is like. So it's really important that we do well here, but if we don't, we know what to do well with at Big 12.
On team members pacing each other through the meets: Pack running has been a really big thing this year. I think our gap at Notre Dame was 12 seconds, so that's what we've really been pushing in workouts; to work with each other, to motivate each other to run faster. I think the pack was good at Notre Dame but we've really been focusing on moving that up and running faster and pushing each other to go up into the top 40.
On preparations having overcome pneumonia: I picked up on my daily runs so like a 6:30 pace, which was a lot faster than I've done in a long time but it feels really good and I've been picking up my normal runs. So, I've just been preparing by challenging myself as if I was on the national level, because that's where I want to be.
On her biggest goal for Friday: You know, I've never been competitive in cross country. I've always come in with some type of something where I'm not putting myself into the top. So I think my goal is to put myself out there and not give up. It's a lot different from track, it's way harder so I think my goal is to feel good about what I do.
Players Mentioned
