Men and women head to Midwest Regional meet

After third place finishes for both the men’s and women’s cross country teams at the Big Ten Championships, this weekend will provide a chance for both teams to seal their entry into the NCAA Championships, or make their best case to gain an at-large bid.
Held in Missouri , the NCAA Midwest Regional awards automatic entry to the NCAA Championships to the top two finishers in each of the nine regional groups. Teams that finish out of the top two will then have to hope for an at-large berth to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
After having their streak of two consecutive Big Ten title’s snapped at this year’s Big Ten Championships, women’s head coach Gary Wilson will look to extend another streak this weekend at the regional.
“We’d certainly like to win the regional title for the third year in a row; we also know that the objective this weekend is to get to nationals,” Wilson said. “If we’re top two, great. If we’re top three or even top four, we most likely will go because we’ve got enough points. The objective is just to get in there and compete, but I think they’d like to win the regional title, and I think that’s their goal.”
The third-place finish at the Big Ten, combined with the team’s second-place finish in the Griak Invitational has Wilson’s squad out for revenge this weekend against the schools that bested them in earlier competition.
“I think they’d like to beat Illinois because Illinois’s beaten them twice by just a couple points; I think they’d like to pay Iowa State back for beating them at the Griak,” Wilson said. “I think they’re in a really good place mentally right now, and they’ve got that fire to go after it, and I think they’ve got some big goals for Regionals and Nationals.”
Leading the Gophers in Missouri will be Megan Duwell . The senior is coming off a third-place individual finish at the Big Ten Championships, where she finished the 6-kilometer race with the third-best time in the history of the Minnesota program. While she will undoubtedly face steep competition, Wilson believes Duwell has a chance at taking home the individual title on Saturday.
“For Megan, I think she’d like to win the individual title, but she also knows Lisa Koll’s running very well for Iowa State,” Wilson said. “She’s got a shot, she’s got a real shot at it; she’s running well, and she’s still got that fire and is healthy.”
Fellow senior Jamie Cheever has battled illness all year, and after struggling at the Big Ten Championships, Wilson said Cheever would be a second alternate for Saturday’s meet.
“That’s where her consistency rating was, and other people deserved to go before her,” Wilson said.
Following a third-place finish of their own at the Big Ten Championships, men’s head coach Steve Plasencia is happy with the way training has gone in the weeks leading up to the NCAA Regional.
“The nice weather has been good for training, as we were unfortunate in October. We were fortunate in November to be able to have some good conditions to go outside and get some good workouts in,” Plasencia said. “I think we’ve had some good training since the Big Ten meet, and we’re just going to move forward and see what happens.”
While the Big Ten’s saw an adjustment in race length, the NCAA Regional features a wrinkle of its own. Where Big Ten Championships allowed Plasencia to bring nine runners, this meet only allows for seven, meaning the importance of each runner is magnified come Saturday.
“We’ll adjust our lineup,” Plasencia said. “You have less room for error when you get down there.”
The key to Minnesota’s success or failure Saturday will hinge on an area it has struggled all season: the No. 5 runner.
Freshman Derek Storkel emerged as the leading candidate this weekend with a strong performance at the Big Ten Championship, and Plasencia will count on either Storkel or junior Mike McFarland to fill the No. 5 spot on Saturday.
No matter who runs fifth for the Gophers, Plasencia is confident his team can accomplish its goal Saturday and move on to the NCAA Championship.
“Anytime you go to a regional, it’s a stepping stone to the national meet,” Plasencia said. “Our goal is to send a team on to the national meet, which we have accomplished in 12 of the last 14 years.”