After two and a half months of practice and hard work, the wait is finally over.
The Penn State women's cross country team heads into Sunday's Big Ten Championships at the Orange and Blue University Golf Course in Champaign, Ill., with confidence.
The Nittany Lions has put together a strong season up to this point and hope to keep that going on Sunday. Penn State has won its first meet this season in four years along with two other second place finishes.
"Our goal is to be in the middle of the pack somewhere," Penn State women's cross country coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "Spots three through six will be very tight, Purdue, Minnesota, Michigan and ourselves should be fighting it out for them. It will be very competitive, because we all match up real close to one another on paper."
The Lions will be competitive on Sunday but the two frontrunners still look to be No. 6 Michigan State and No. 14 five-time defending Big Ten champs Wisconsin.
The Spartans possess the ability and talent to knock off Wisconsin behind senior Ann Sommerville and sophomore Michelle Carson. Michigan State is coming in off an impressive second place finish at the Pre-NCAA meet.
The Badgers who have not run up to their potential all season, will also be without two-time defending Big Ten champ Erica Palmer, who underwent season ending surgery three weeks ago. Wisconsin will heavily rely on fellow senior Bethany Brewster to carry the load. Liz Ruesser who has missed most of the season after suffering an injury in the opener, should return to help bolster the Badger lineup.
"We will have to surpass what we have done all season to win, and haven't run with a full squad all year," Wisconsin women's cross country coach Peter Tegen said. "Michigan State has been tremendous all year long. So it's looking dim for us."
After running most of the year on a 6,000 meter course this weekend course will be only 5,000 meters. The difference is only a 1,000 meters, and should benefit the Lions.
"We're loving it, because this is the distance that many of us ran last year in high school," freshman Michelle Wale. "We haven't undergone a complete adjustment yet, and we are more used to the 5K."
The Lions should be well rested after not competing last weekend, in preparation for the Big Ten Championships. Under coach Alford-Sullivan's advisement the team has employed a lower key and more relaxed training program for this week.
"Coming off four straight weeks of competition, last weekend off gave us a chance to recover and get our legs back," Chelsea Lenge said.
The well-rested Lions want to revenge their eighth place finish from a year ago.
"Last year we finished eighth," senior captain Kim DeNovellis said. "We want to move on up the ladder. We are trying to take the next step and make an impact this time around."
