It's hard to follow a performance that brought Ball State itsfirst-ever Mid-American Conference Championship, but that's whatthe women's cross country team will try on Saturday at the GreatLakes Regional in Terre Haute.
The team will run a six-kilometer race, one kilometer more thanusual, at the Lavern Gibson Championship Course to see whoqualifies for the national meet.
After its performance at the MAC meet, the Cardinals appeared29th in the national rankings and fifth in the Great Lakes regionrankings.
In addition to several teams Ball State ran against in the MACmeet, this meet will feature some highly ranked national teams.Notre Dame is ranked fourth in the latest poll and is favorite atthe meet.
The Cards will also have to face Michigan, Michigan State andMarquette -- ranked seventh, 12th and 19th respectively.
They will also run against Wisconsin, who has been ranked inprevious polls, and Toledo, who they beat by only five points atthe MAC Championship.
The six-kilometer distance should be an advantage for theCardinals, who are more distance minded to begin with, head coachSue Parks said.
At the MAC meet, the team did everything they needed to byplacing three within the top 15 and two more in the top 26. JuniorJill Scully ran to a second-place finish with her time of 17:32,and Crystal Meeks ran to a 10th-place finish with her time of17:58.
"We're going to have to have a really good day like we did atthe MAC meet," Parks said. "I'm not sure it's going to take amuch-better day, but we need to have as good of a day, if notbetter."
With the top two teams getting an automatic bid, Parks said sheis hoping for about a fifth-place finish, which would give the teama chance for an at-large bid. Those bids will be announcedMonday.
"We didn't really know early on whether we were going to be inthis position, but now that we are, we want to take advantage ofit," Parks said. "Somebody's got to go, so it might as well beus."
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