University of Minnesota Athletics
Distance Gophers Set for Track
1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
MINNEAPOLIS - Coming off the 2016 cross country season, during which Minnesota placed fourth at both the Big Ten Conference meet and the NCAA Midwest Region, the distance Gophers are ready to shift gears to the track.
Head coach Sarah Hopkins discusses lessons learned from the fall, analyzes the event groups on the track, and talks goals for the indoor and outdoor seasons.
On coming off the cross country season...
Hopkins: As much as it was a little bit disappointing how cross country ended overall, I think it gives you a chip on your shoulder and a little bit of an edge. We want to prove to ourselves and to everybody else that we are a good team and that we're going to make an impact. Even as a coach, it makes you reflect on what you can do better. That's been a big message for everybody. We train really well, and a lot of the kids perform really well in workouts but maybe that doesn't always come together on race day. So, what can we look at in terms of sports psych, nutrition, sleep, all those things outside of the nuts and bolts of the workout. That's what almost everyone pointed to in our individual meetings, things they can do better. It never was running more mileage or doing things different in workouts, it's how you can be a better athlete the other 22 hours of the day. That's something that I can think about as a coach, too.
When everything goes smoothly and you reach all your goals, sometimes you don't analyze all those things. I think that's been a good opportunity for us to take a step back and look at how we can be better and what little things we can do individually and as a team. Overall, it's been very positive. Everybody knows we're young and there's a lot ahead of us. We're primarily freshmen and sophomores right now, so it's about learning and getting in there.
On the 600-meter and 800-meter group...
Hopkins: The 600m and 800m group is kind of in a rebuilding year after graduating Ally McSherry, Stacey Swatek, and Kate Shelerud last year. That's probably the area where I think we have the biggest hole to fill. We have some younger kids who are chomping at the bit to do that.
I really think right now on the track, the leader of that group right now is Paige Peschel. She made some big strides during cross country, and that's going to signal some good things on the track. She can go back and forth between the 600m and the 800m and go up to the mile or 1,200m leg of a DMR. I'm excited to see what she can do. She took some big steps last year outdoors and ran 2:12 in the 800m and really started to come around. I think she had a big upside coming in.
After that, we have Anne Haakenstad and Kate Bishop, who've been around for a while, but then you mix in with that group some of the newbies, Lindsey Greenlund and Carissa Dock. They proved that they can run good cross country this fall, but one of the reasons we recruited them was for their mid-distance ability. I'm excited to throw them into the group and see what happens. It's going to be a pretty unproven group right now, but there's some talent there.
On the milers...
Hopkins: Last year Kaila Urick, Haley Johnson, and Madeline Strandemo really kind of started to get the mile back on the map for us at the Big Ten level after a little bit of a lull. Obviously, that group is led by Maddie this year. She ran 4:42 last year and was third in the Big Ten. She has a ton of confidence after last year and even more coming out of cross country this fall. I think the sky is the limit for her in the mile right now. That's what we'll focus on indoors for her; we'll dabble in the 3,000m a little like she did last year. I think her best shot to make an NCAA meet is going to be in the mile. Her goals are pretty lofty and rightfully so. It's going to be exciting.
Maddie is going to lead a group that's really exciting with Bethany Hasz and Megan Hasz and also Elyse Prescott, who have all run sub-4:50 in the mile in high school. They're all pretty exciting. Then you have Tess Wasowicz, who ran a big PR at the Big Ten outdoor meet last year and can hopefully come in this year and pick up where she left off. She'll give us another veteran in that group.
That group gets exciting with how we divide up the distance medley relay legs, too. We've had good success in the DMR at the Big Ten level, so I think that group is in good hands right now, as opposed to where it was maybe three of four years ago when it was a little bit decimated. I'm excited to see how some of the younger runners and people like Samantha Prouty, Abby Lange, and Rachel Wians fit in. There's a good mix of really top end kids and then another group trying to make that next push to get to the Big Ten level.
On the 3,000m and 5,000m group...
Hopkins: The 3K and 5K group has a lot of depth to it. I think we're kind of waiting in that group for the next queen bee to emerge. Obviously, we had Liz Berkholtz last year, who held that group together in some ways and was the out-front performer. This year, there's a little more parity in that group but again a lot of depth with Danielle Anderson, Bailey Ness, Patty O'Brien, and Bethany and Megan Hasz, depending on which direction we go with them. Even Elyse Prescott, who ran 9:45 in high school for the 3K. Tamara Gorman, who dealt with some injuries this fall, is a big player in that group, and then Emily Betz, Abby Kargol, Courtney Alama, they're all in that next family.
The parity there will help this be a competitive group in practice. All it takes is one person to catch fire and get some confidence, translate that into races, and that will pull the rest of the group. They all see each other as equals, and it just takes one person to prove it a little on race day and everybody else comes along for the ride. That group is a little bit unproven, but I'm excited about what they can do as a group. There's some good mojo there in training. A lot of them are looking ahead to the 10,000m, but at the same time we're trying to put together a good indoor season to give them some confidence heading outdoors.
On the transition from cross country to the track...
Hopkins: Track is obviously a different animal. For some people, it's a preferable animal in terms of distance or rhythm or finesse compared to a cross country course. I do think this group, overarchingly, is a comparable if not better group on the track. There have been years where we've had a good cross country team that hasn't translated to the track as well. I think this group is sort of the opposite of that where we have milers, we have speed, we have good 10Kers and steeplers that translate well to the track. I'm excited to see what we can do.
Obviously, our ultimate goal is just to help the overall team. We need to get to the Big Ten meet and score points and help the team do as well as we can do, hold up our end of the bargain. We have good talent, so we have to get the to meet and do well there. PRs are great, but we need to compete. That's something that this team does well, but when you're young, it's something that you keep learning -- how to get in there and race versus trying to run a certain time or PR. You have to get in there and battle. That's what the Big Ten Conference in the distance events is all about, so that's something we're going to keep working on and keep getting better at. Hopefully that results in a really good outcome come March and then May.
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Players Mentioned
