Decker growing up quick as contributing true freshman

To an extent, Ashlie Decker personifies the Gophers women’s cross country team this season. She’s young, inexperienced, relatively under the radar — and extremely talented.
Decker, a true freshman, is one of the primary members that have caused this team to exceed expectations.
Head coach Gary Wilson said it’s not a matter of over-achieving; merely a case of Decker lived up to the coach’s expectations right away.
“I don’t think she’s surpassed any expectations; she’s a very talented runner coming in. We knew she was very, very good,” he said. “What we saw in her from the beginning of the recruiting process is exactly what we got.”
Decker ran good times in high school, Wilson said, but her college success to this point has been better. Wilson estimated that 85 percent of talented high school runners never pan out in Division I because of the attitude adjustment necessary for collegiate athletics.
She’s steadily been improving her times on the season culminating in a 19th place finish at the Big Ten Championships.
Even as a freshman without the benefit of a redshirt year to learn the ins and outs of the program, Decker has been consistently the fourth fastest runner for this year’s team, at times cracking the top-three.
She puts an emphasis on the final kick of races when most runners are merely hoping to complete the race. At the Big Ten Championships on Halloween, she passed four runners in the final 200 meters of the race to boost the Gophers team score.
“This year I’ve noticed for some reason that when I finish a race I can’t stand up,” Decker said. “It’s that thought that I couldn’t have done any better; I’ve given everything I could to the point I want to fall over at the end of the race … I can’t really get that feeling in school,” she joked.
The team will count on Decker to continue her consistent performance this weekend at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships.
Wilson said the team goal is to earn an automatic qualifier this weekend, but if the team finishes third or fourth, he still feels as though Minnesota has beaten enough quality teams this season to earn an at-large bid.
Two teams from each of the eight regions across the country automatically qualify by placing in the top-two at this weekend’s regional meet.
After the 16 teams are decided, 15 more are selected at-large based on whom they defeated during the season, to expand the field to 31 teams.
“I think we’ve got enough points,” Wilson said, “but it’s a lot more fun to drive home when you know [you’re in].”
Especially with some of the younger members on the team, nerves in a high-pressure meet can be difficult, but Decker said meets like the Big Ten Championships and the Roy Griak Invitational have prepared the team for big meets.
Decker said that while she is confident for the team’s chances at advancing, she is nervous considering the uncertainty this weekend.
“I think it’s just that thought that anything can happen,” Decker said, “knowing that if we don’t run well this weekend, we’re not going to be there at nationals.”