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MSU men's and women's cross country head to nationals

November 19, 2015
<p>Redshirt junior women's cross country runner Alexis Wiersma (Photo credit MSU Athletic Communications/Brett Dunbar)</p>

Redshirt junior women's cross country runner Alexis Wiersma (Photo credit MSU Athletic Communications/Brett Dunbar)

This weekend the MSU men's and women's cross country teams will be heading to Louisville, Ky for the NCAA Championships. The men’s team finished second overall at last weekend’s Great Lakes’s Regional, earning them an automatic bid for the NCAA Championships, while the women’s team finished third in last weekend’s race and received an at large bid based on their success as a team throughout the season.

Last season, the women's team won the national championship, but redshirt junior Alexis Wiersma said this year’s championship is going to be a little different from last year’s.

“As a team we have got a different group of women so we're just kind of looking to go out there to do the best that we can,” Wiersma said. “It’s a new experience for the new people and we’re taking it one step at a time and doing the same thing we’ve done all season.”

Wiersma ran in the NCAA Championships last year and has had a successful 2015 season as well, finishing second overall in the Big Ten Championships and third overall in the Great Lakes Regional.

“As an individual runner I am much stronger this year,” Wiersma said.

Going back to nationals for a second time will be easier than the first time for Wiersma, especially with the support of her teammates.

“Having been to nationals before takes away the pressure and makes it more relaxed, as a team we are all such good friends and we win together,” Wiersma said.

One of Wiersma’s teammate's, redshirt junior Shelby Jackson, did not get to run in last year’s national championships because of a stress fracture, but is just as ready to compete in this year’s race.

“I’ve been through a couple more races and try not to be intimidated by it and just go out there and do what I always do and see what happens,” Jackson said.

The women’s team runs together as a pack during races, Jackson said, and is excited to see how she and her team will perform in Louisville this Saturday.

“Just going out there and seeing if we can beat teams that earlier this season we hadn’t beat before,” Jackson said. ”If we end up improving and beating teams we hadn’t in the past its cool to see improvement and see progress."

The men’s team is also looking forward to making progress based on last year’s championship competition.

“We are more driven this year,” redshirt senior Caleb Rhynard said. “We’re ready to do better than we did last year. We didn't have the best year at national’s last year so we’re looking froward to going back and dramatically improving what we did last year.”

This will only be Rhynard’s fourth race of the year. He was out for most of the season due to a fracture in his right tibia, but said he is prepared for this weekend’s race.

“I’m as prepared as I can be given the circumstances," Rhynard said. "I think we did a really good job trying to come back as quickly as possible without rushing it so I think I am as physically fit as I possibly can be and am ready to race."

Because of his injury, Rhynard, who was at the front of the team last year is now running in a pack of seven MSU runners that can all preform and win points for the team.

“It’s nice having that variability where if somebody’s not on we have somebody to take their place,” Rhynard said.

Redshirt junior Sherod Hardt is one of those leading men for the cross country team. Hardt came in seventh place in last weekend’s Great Lakes Regional and has been preparing all season for the NCAA Championships. 

“This season I’ve done a lot to prepare for this,” Hardt said. “As a team before and after every race we’ll get together and talk about things that went good and the things that went wrong and ways that we can improve on those mistakes that we made and how we can become a stronger team.”

The cross country team is ready to rise to the challenge and come out on top at this year’s NCAA National Championships, Hardt said.

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“I’m most excited to see the outcome of the race," Hardt said. "We feel confident and ready in our ability to race well and we want to go out there and put our necks out there and compete with the nation’s best."

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