The Sacramento State women’s cross-country team finished second at the Big Sky Championships on Nov. 1, in Portland, Ore. This was the first time that the Sac State women’s team finished higher than seventh at the Big Sky Championships.

 

“It was very exciting for a team that has never seen higher than seventh place,” said Head Coach Scott Abbott. “Last year, they were second to last. So, it was nice to see them celebrate after the meet.”

 

Abbott said that in the past, the team would watch other successful teams celebrate after the meet, but wouldn’t celebrate because it wasn’t as successful as it wanted to be.

 

Every runner on the team broke their personal records on the 5K course.

 

Sophomore Kristina Holtz led the Hornets by finishing in sixth place with a time of 17:22.4. Sophomore Renisha Robinson followed her, finishing seventh with 17:55.2, and junior Caprice Bradshaw finished ninth with 17:35.4.

 

Junior Erin Lewis finished 17th with 17:55.2, while seniors Jodie Leal and Erin Wachter finished 20th with 18:00.1, and 28th with 18:24.6, all impacting the final score.

 

“We just talked about getting in the highest position possible,” said team captain Wachter. “There were certain teams we targeted and we saw them and just went after them.”

 

Abbott talked about the strategy of targeting certain teams.

 

“We were trying to key in on Weber State, because it has traditionally been one of the top two teams in our conference,” Abbott said. “(The players) usually wear purple uniforms, so I told the team to find purple jerseys and run with them.”

 

Holtz said that everyone on the team had to really push themselves in order to keep up with the other teams.

 

“We couldn’t even walk after the race because everyone was just so exhausted,” Holtz said. “They left everything they had out there on the field.”

 

The team’s next competition is the NCAA West Regional in Stanford on Saturday.

 

“It’s the first time Sac State’s been regionally ranked,” Abbott said. “There are a lot of teams that could easily beat us, and we are going to have to try to uphold our ranking.”

 

On the men’s side, Sac State finished sixth in the Big Sky championships.

 

Senior Colin Szehner came in first for the Hornets, by finishing 17th in 24:36.7. Senior Dominic Vogl ran 24:56.2 to finish 25th and junior Scott Grose finished 29th at 25:14. Other team scorers were freshman Chris Romo, who came in 31st in 25:20.7, and junior Jason Sey at 25:30.4.

 

Abbott said he was disappointed with the results because he believed the team could have done better.

 

“The teams that beat us weren’t better than us – they were just better that day,” Abbott said. “It was an average performance, but a conference isn’t the time to be average. It’s the time to be great.”

 

Abbott said the team didn’t attack the race with enough aggression and were a little passive.

 

“We held back a little bit, and weren’t committed to the faster paces,” Abbott said.

 

Cross-country runner Scott Grose said the team got off to a rocky start.

 

“The race went off to a really hard start and we just fell off,” Grose said. “We could have easily gotten third place if we had been a little bit better, if we could have ran faster and placed higher up.”

 

Romo, who raced despite a knee injury, said that racing conditions might have played a part in the team’s performance.

 

“The racing conditions weren’t the best; it was windy and muddy. All those factors can have a big impact on a race,” Romo said.

 

Vogl said that he would have preferred a bigger field, so that there would have been more people to run and compete against.

 

Abbott said the team is learning from its mistakes, and is now focusing on its next competition, which will be the NCAA West Regional in Stanford. Abbott says there will be few changes made in the workouts or practice schedule, as he feels the team is in pretty good shape.

 

“These guys are in really good shape, they just missed an opportunity, and they know the mistakes that they have made,” Abbott said.

 

Vogl agreed, “Bad things happen; you just need to pick up the pieces and move on.”