After finishing first in the Jayhawk East Conference and second in Region VI, Allen Community College’s men’s cross country team is heading to the NJCAA Championship in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday. Also going to the meet is Alisn Stevens, the lone member of the women’s team.
Going back to 2013, Allen’s men’s cross country and track teams have won five straight conference titles in both sports. That includes two titles for cross country, two for indoor track and one for outdoor track.
“We would all just have to run lights out to get in the top three (teams). Those teams ahead of us would have to run bad,” DeGrado, explaining his expectations for the national meet, said. “Realistically, I think we will be fifth or sixth. If we run well and the teams ahead of us run well, that’s probably what will happen. Now, if we can have a great run, we’ve got a good shot to slot in there. But, there’s a pretty big separation between the top four teams.”
Individually, he believes Pedro Montoya and Brock Artis can finish in the top-15 runners, the standard to reach All-American status. The meet is expected to have around 300 runner.
“I never had a male cross country All-American before,” DeGrado said. “I’ve had three cross country women.”
Both Montoya and Artis finished as All-Conference and All-Region VI runners this season.
“Realistically, if we could put two guys in the top 15, then get our four and five runners closer to where our number three runs, that puts us in business,” DeGrado said. “Anything can happen at nationals. There’s no difference between this race and the first 8-kilometer meet that we ran. There’s a name attached to it and that’s ‘nationals’ instead of ‘Missouri Southern.’”
DeGrado said the Red Devils have a chance to beat Colby — the team that beat the men at the regional meet.
“Have you ever gone on a roller coaster, you have those nerves? That’s kind of what racing cross country is like. You have self-made adrenaline and you just have to control yourself and go out with your fitness,” DeGrado said.
“The body prepares itself and it knows it’s going to go through pain. A lot of things feel slower in a race. We just went out slightly faster (at the regional) than we needed to and it was too hot. So, Colby caught back up to us. We just need to go with our fitness to according what the weather is and we will be fine.”
DeGrado expects Stevens to finish in the top-30 runners at the national meet. She finished 10th in the regional and third in conference.
“To get top-15, she would have to run lights out,” DeGrado said. “There’s a possibility that she can, but realistically top-30 seems about right. If she had the race of her life, then she could get in there.”
The team heads for Lubbock today after classes. It will be an 11-hour drive, which isn’t great for the body in preparation for a cross country meet.
“Usually, when you have a long drive like that, there will be a day when you just feel horrible,” DeGrado said. “It’s usually the next day. In theory, I’d rather have them have a horrible day on Thursday and on Friday they feel all right, so Saturday they feel great.”
DeGrado said the team has been successful this season, partly to his balance of workouts. He said he didn’t expect this team to be as strong as it’s been.
“We had Pedro, he is a game-changer type of runner, but everybody else wasn’t really proven,” DeGrado said. “Brock was a redshirt and we’ve got guys that ran half-miles and are running cross country for the first time in college. We made it to regionals being possibly considered favorites. It would be nice to be a top-five team at nationals this year.”
Last year, Allen finished sixth at nationals. DeGrado said that was disappointing because that them had plenty of talent.
“This year, we’ve run better than last year’s team with less talent,” DeGrado said. “It goes to show you that with running you don’t have to be the most talented, but work harder.”
ACC cross country to nationals
