Idaho cross country to compete in local meet to round out regular season
To conclude regular season racing, the Idaho cross country teams take the short drive Saturday down to Lewiston to compete at the Inland Empire Challenge hosted by Lewis-Clark State College.
Jackson Flynn | Argonaut
Senior Abby Larson practicing on the track Thursday afternoon. Saturday the Track and Field team competes in Lewiston at the Inland Empire Challenge.
Normally, the meet features a couple of local teams, but this year the competition is more stacked than usual.
“It’s actually turned into a lot better meet than the level of competition that I anticipated,” Idaho coach Travis Floeck said. “Definitely with the level of competition coming now, I think it’s going to be somewhat comparable to the level of competition we’ll see at the conference meet.”
Teams competing in Lewiston this week include Washington State, Gonzaga, Montana, Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon, Great Falls, College of Idaho, Spokane Community College and the University of Calgary making the trek down from Canada.
Floeck said making the short trip to Lewiston allows his team more time to rest as he wants the team be at full strength come the Big Sky Championships in two weeks. Many teams across the country use this weekend to compete at the pre-nationals meet in Indiana.
The close meet also allows the opportunity for the Vandals to race in front of friends and family.
“It’s definitely nice not having to travel,” sophomore Nathan Stark said. “The less energy you have to expend getting from one place to another, the more energy you’ll have for your race. Plus being super close, we might have some more supporters at the meet. The track team might come down and support us, friends, family — it will be good.”
Idaho has a new face competing this weekend, but she won’t be wearing an Idaho uniform this weekend. Sophomore Halie Raudenbush, who would be Idaho’s top returner from last season, is competing unattached since Floeck is still considering redshirting her this year. After the meet, he will make the decision on whether or not to race her in the conference championship meet.
Jackson Flynn | Argonaut
“A sport like football, basketball, whatever it may be, those types of competitions you can’t compete when you’re redshirting,” he said. “In our sport they can compete. They have to go do everything themselves, entry fee, travel and everything but they are able to go race unattached.”
Floeck said former Vandal Alycia Butterworth is also racing unattached this weekend. Butterworth is out of cross country eligibility, but still has track and field eligibility remaining.
On the men’s side, Floeck is choosing to sit out Tim Delcourt and Mickey Day due to nagging injuries.
Floeck said his race plan going into the meet is the same as it normally is — start out a little slower. It sounds simple, but when racers factor in adrenaline, 100 other racers and trying to manage one’s perceived effort, it is more of a challenge, he said.
“I’m a big believer in not going out too hard,” Floeck said. “It seems like common sense to kind of run even, but a lot of people get caught up in going out really hard. I’d like to see my team be the team at the end of a race passing people as opposed to having people fly by them.”
The Lewiston course is mostly flat terrain, similar to the course at their last meet at the UW Invitational and like they will experience in two weeks at the Big Sky Championships at Grand Forks, North Dakota. Now, the Vandals need to get one more race behind them before the most important race of the season.
“This is one more stepping stone to conference,” sophomore Valerie Mitchell said. “Try to get everyone feeling good … because I think we’ve been pretty nervous all season trying to figure out what we’re capable of and I think this is another step on the way to realize how great we can be at conference.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]