According to senior Mary Maloney, it was a bittersweet experience.
The NCAA Midwest Regional, hosted by Oklahoma State University on Nov. 15, marked the final competition of the season for the Saint Louis University cross country team. The women’s squad was fully represented in the team competition, and placed 20th out of 27 complete teams.
Sophomore Brian Holdmeyer, alone, represented the Bills from the men’s team, and he managed to place 108th.
“It’s a huge deal, where you compete against the best,” Maloney said. “The intensity is on a different level because we’re competing against the best competition in the nation.”
Coming into the meet, the goal that head coach Jon Bell had established for his runners was to finish within the top 15 complete teams. But even though they missed out on this goal, the women’s team still can be proud of their achievements from this season of ups and downs.
On this particular bittersweet day at Regionals, it was a freshman, Adair Quisenberry, who set the pace for the rest of her teammates. Quisenberry finished with a time of 22:46.50 for the 6K course and placed 78th place individually, a hopeful sign for the future.
Conditions in Stillwater, Ok., were blustery and chilly, which added to the already formidable challenge offered by the exceptionally hilly Regional course.
“It was really windy,” Maloney said. “Times were not fast by any means.”
This was the second time in which the women’s team competed at Oklahoma State, and it is safe to say that the results were much more satisfactory this time around.
“We ran this course earlier in the season-it’s a really difficult course. This time around we had much faster times,” Quisenberry said. “We all had better races.”
Taking on difficult courses became a habit for the team this year.
“The course selection we had this year was really challenging. We definitely went out of our comfort zone,” Maloney said.
Indeed, taking on challenges seemed to be a theme this season. Freshman Hilary Orf, the first finisher for SLU at the Atlantic 10 conference meet, did not compete at the Midwest Regional because of an ankle injury. Because of this late scratch, the women’s team competed with only six runners out of the standard seven.
An even more drastic adjustment the team endured was the mid-season loss of the women’s distance running coach. Head cross country and track and field coach Jon Bell took over coaching women’s distance running as a replacement, giving him one more responsibility on an already full plate, which includes the responsibility of recruiting.
“This has probably been one of the most challenging seasons we’ve ever had,” Maloney said.
Despite this, she also says it may have been their best season ever. SLU’s women’s team finished sixth in the Atlantic 10 Conference Meet, a best in the history of the program.
“We lose three of our top five [runners] next season. Those of us that are here will have to step and hopefully we can get some recruits,” Quisenberry said.
From the perspective of the men’s squad, this was a year to adapt to the rigors of college-level running. On a team with zero seniors, there were bound to be some growing pains.
“We made really large strides this year; we just didn’t have the talent to place higher. It was a little disappointing that we didn’t improve but we were really young and we have a lot of room to improve in front of us. It’s a process were looking to taking on and we think next year and the year after we can improve our conference score,” Holdmeyer said.
The next two weeks will include minimal training for the team, but after that, it will be time to prepare for the indoor track season. The first meet is just around the corner, on Dec. 8.
