University of Minnesota Athletics
Hopkins Previews Midwest Regional
11/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 12, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 21 Minnesota women's cross country team heads to the 2015 Midwest Regional on Friday. GopherSports.com caught up with head coach Sarah Hopkins as the team prepares for the regional meet.
Gopher Sports: What do you know about the Midwest Regional opponents?
Sarah Hopkins: We see Iowa State a lot. They're always good. They're always gamers, ready to go. They have some injuries, but I don't take them lightly by any stretch. At the Big 12 meet, they didn't necessarily run their best meet, but they did go one-two individually. When you have two low sticks, that's a big deal. Oklahoma State obviously beat Iowa State at Big 12s. We hadn't really seen much out of them yet this year. They had run at some low-key meets. They hadn't really raced much against common opponents to that point, so it'll be interesting.
GS: How do the Gophers stack up against Iowa State and Oklahoma State?
SH: I think, in some ways, you can throw a blanket over us in terms of the type of teams that we are. I think Iowa State has the edge in sort of the top-end couple of kids, but I don't know that they have quite the depth. Oklahoma State has that nice really close pack from one to five, and I think we're kind of in the middle of both of them. We have a good pack up front with a little bit of a gap to five, so we're a little bit of both. It'll just come down to who runs well on the day.
GS: How do you feel about the team's chances of getting back to the NCAA Championship?
SH: I think we've done our job throughout the season that hopefully, if we're third, we have good points. We've had good wins throughout the year, but you don't want to leave it to chance. All of our heart rates will be a little lower on Friday night if we are in the top two and can go to bed and sleep easy.
I feel really good that we've done our job throughout the year. That's really important, too. It shouldn't just come down to that day. The way the system is set up is nice that we can have that little bit of a safety blanket. If all heck breaks loose, we have been able to do good things all season that will give us a bit of a cushion if we need it. We can't get lackadaisical, but I feel good about where we are at.
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