Driving on the campus of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College this year, you might have noticed a new sight: 14 women running together across campus.  These women are the College's first ever cross country team.  You might wonder how this small college team will stack up against other college teams being their first time to compete together. Well, after three months of intense preparation, they are headed to Concord, NH, to compete in the United States Collegiate Athletic Associations (USCAA) National Cross Country Championship.

First year coach, Danelle Readinger said, “Since the first practice our intention was to give the best effort, in hopes for improvements and meeting challenges.  We have competed at all different sizes of invitationals to prepare for the possibility to compete at Nationals in Concord, New Hampshire.  The young team proved that giving your best and working hard pays off.  This past weekend we competed in St. Louis, Missouri at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy Invitational and took 1st place with total points of 19.  Almost a perfect score for a Cross Country Meet.  It was an exciting day to see all the navy and Columbia blue uniforms coming across the finish line one right after another.  As the season has progressed the girls have been given different goals to work on during each race, personally and as a team.  With USCAA Nationals a week away, we are focused on the intensity of our race and the mental strength it will take to compete against the best in the USCAA.”

The young women started out the season by bonding at their cross country camp in Wisconsin.  They've learned to work towards their own personal goals, but also toward their team goals.

“Each week, we train a lot to get ready for a 5k or a 6k race. Many people do not understand the work that goes into preparing for a race; it is a culmination of months and months of training. If a person takes even two days off of running, they fall out of shape. Having said that, we have hard workouts Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (if we have no meet on Saturday). Tuesdays and Thursdays are our ‘easy days,' which usually consists of a 45-60 minute run. During the week we are really upbeat and goofy, but on meet days, we get down to business. The team usually carb-loads with pasta the night before a race and of course we get a decent amount of sleep. On race day, we warm up for around 15 minutes and stretch. We do a group prayer and team chant before the start of the race to get our minds in the right place,” said team member, Stephanie Runyon, a freshmen and Secondary English Education major from Noblesville, Ind.

At the USCAA National Championship, held November 6, there will be 14 teams competing.  “As a team, the ultimate goal is always to run our best, and hopefully at Nationals our best will earn us the USCAA title. At nationals there will be 14 teams, and winning a meet out of a field of 14 would be impressive, especially for a team of 14 women, 12 of whom are freshmen. Whatever the end result of the meet next Friday is, the experience has been awesome, rewarding, and inspiring, and I wouldn't trade it for the world,” said Runyon.