Utes 6th, Abbott to NCAA Championships

If this cross country season was a concert then our team played a lot of the right notes and left their supporters calling for an encore.  The early meets featured some great individual efforts and a variety of line ups that always seemed to keep everyone around us guessing about how could we really were or could be.  

After a 6th place finish at the Stanford Invite and an even better team effort at the Pre National meet all the pieces were falling into place for a great championship run.  

Insert short Utah history lesson:

Mountain West Conference team finishes:  2005-7th; 2006-6th; 2007-5th

NCAA Mountain Region team finishes: 2005-15th; 2006-11th, 2007-11th (tie) with one All-Region runner

Insert 2008 Utah Team Goals:

Conference: Top 3

NCAA Region: Top 7

As everyone who reads this blogs knows well by now...we had a phenomenal race at conference and finished third.  After that meet we were moved to fifth in the Mountain Region rankings tying the highest ranking in our program history). I wasn't quite sure how we were going to find a way to run any better than we did that day in San Diego.  So as a coach I decided to do what I had done since the Stanford meet....nothing!  I gave them workouts, set up the course for the workouts, gave them water, carried their wet shoes and shirts back to the locker room in my car, and then stayed out of the way!!!  

Coaching isn't always a bunch of magical words, tricks, or motivational ploys.  Sometimes it's simply providing a little guidance and self confidence and then letting the athletes make the magic themselves.  This group did that all year because it was always about the team and doing what they needed to do as individuals to help the team be successful.  It short...they figured out their individual roles on this team.  They gave a great effort every day, picked up others when they were down, and allowed their teammates to pick them up when they were not at their best on a given day.  

The Outcome and Encore:  All seven runners run lifetime bests for 6K, we have three finishers in the top 32, two All Region selections (top 25), and an individual NCAA championships qualifier.  Junior Alyssa Abbott ran 21 second PR to finish 9th and become Utah's first NCAA qualifier in over a decade.  Seniors Chelsea DiGrazia (who didn't run xc in high school---soccer player) and Lauren Endersen (who was told by college coach that she wouldn't be good enough to run at the DI level) were 21st and 32nd overall.  Endersen PR'd by 58 seconds.  Abbott and DiGrazia were both honored as All Mountain Region selections.  Our other two seniors Kellie Anderson (62nd) and Janett Ern (64th) also ran huge lifetime bests.  The two youngsters (So-Sam Gaffney and Fr-Carly Selleck) also ran big PR's to end the season.  

The Second Encore:  Abbott competes in her first NCAA championship meet after her status for the Regional meet was very much in doubt due to an IT band injury which continues to plague her.  Before we left on Thursday it was about 95% that she would not compete at the Regional meet.  By Friday she felt better and didn't want to give up hope of qualifying without trying. It's an injury that she really can't make any worse and running is a matter of pain tolerance.  Don't ever question Alyssa Abbott's toughness or tolerance!!!

The NCAA championship women's 6K will held in Terre Haute, IN and begin at noon (EDT). CBS College Sports Network will televise the race live.