Upcoming Event: Cross Country versus Gans Creek Classic on September 26, 2025 at 8:00 AM
8:00 AM
Cross Country
vs Gans Creek Classic
Coach Kepler's Weekly Recap - Week 5
10/17/2006 12:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 17, 2006
This meet is one of the two biggest meets in the country all year. With 44 teams lining up for one race, the shear number of runners would be enough to intimidate even the best teams. I thought all along we were good enough to finish in the top half of the field and if we ran well, a top-20 finish wasn't out of the question.
Our flight and trip to Fayetteville, Ark., the day before the race went very smoothly. It was a direct flight from SLC so our time in flight was not all that long. The hotel was very nice and the weather was going to be perfect. All we needed to do was show up and run which is all you can ask for at a big meet like this.
I wanted our team to get out in decent position without getting out too fast and using too much energy. As they ran by me at 250 meters I was not happy. We were two-thirds of the way back in the massive 350-plus runner field. That's too far back even if the pace is quick. It's a fine line at these races between feeling smooth and being competitive at the beginning. We obviously need to improve in that area. However, this young group never flinched and went through the mile with a lot of people to pass. They knew they had a lot of work to over the remaining 2.75 miles and they went and did it. I wouldn't be surprised if our top four runners passed 75-100 runners in that short distance. They kept moving forward and passing groups of runners enroute to our 18th place team finish. (We were 21st out of 38 teams a year ago). Five of the six gals PR'd. I was pleased with the effort from the mile mark on. We finished as well as we have in my time as coach here at Utah. Overall, it really feels like this team is coming together at the right time. Our 1-through-5 finish time was just over a minute again. If we can get this down to 45 seconds or better then we should improve on our seventh place finish at the conference meet a year ago. With three freshmen stepping up and leading this team at such a huge meet, the future of this program looks very bright.
The flight schedules dictated that we had to spend Saturday night in Fayetteville and not fly back until Sunday afternoon. After a great evening meal the team wanted to check out campus which they did. Sunday morning we all got up and went back to the course and ran our long run in the wind and rain that had moved in. Finally, we were able to return home on another direct flight.
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