By Jim Fryar
jfryar@joplinglobe.com
There should be no surprises left when Missouri Southern runners compete today for the right to race in the NCAA Division II national championships.
The Lions will race in the South Central Regional in Abilene, Texas. Schools from the MIAA, Lone Star and Heartland conferences are entered.
The Southern women’s team, ranked No. 3 in the nation, is seeking its third straight regional title. The Southern men are ranked tops in the region and No. 11 in the nation.
“We don’t want to run our best race, but we want to be about 90 percent,” said Southern men’s coach Tom Rutledge. “We’re hoping to just keep putting it together and climbing the ladder.”
The men have a little more margin for error. The top three teams in their 10-kilometer race qualify for nationals. Only the two two women’s teams will advance to nationals.
“Our No. 1 goal is to qualify for nationals, but we would also like to win the meet,” said Patty Vavra, Southern women’s coach. “I don’t think there are too many teams who have won three (regionals) in a row.”
Tactics played a major role in the Southern men winning the MIAA cross country championship — in a tightly contested four-team race — on Oct. 24.
“We won’t be able to fool the conference like we did,” Rutledge said. “We had been hlding back all year, certain people at different meets. ... At conference, we went out harder than normal and the next thing you know, everybody was playing catchup.”
A key for the Lions will be the performance of senior Dustin Dixon, who wasn’t able to finish the MIAA race due to illness. That was the result of a short-term illness, Rutledge said.
Senior Brennan Benkert, junior Josh Mathis, sophomores Aki Nummela and Jarkko Jarvenpaa and freshmen Nick Niggemann and Sam Pogue complete the Lions’ expected lineup for today’s race.
The longer distance — the conference race was contested over eight kilometers — should work in Southern’s favor, Rutledge believes.
“We’ve kept up our mileage and we should be better in a 10K,” Rutledge said. “That’s what we train for. We go out at the same pace and we depend on our conditioning and training to kick in over the last two kilometers.”
Southern’s women will enter seniors Kimi Shank, Ashley Bunch and Courtney Waltbillig, junior Silvia Pineda and freshmen Ashley Siler, Marlee Tegenkamp and Dora Eastin in today’s race.
“This senior group has done such a great job,” Vavra said. “I hope they put the finishing touches on it (qualifying for nationals). We need to control the things that we can control, just go out and run well.
“One of the greatest things about this group is that they run focused and try to run the best race they can every time out. They’re confident, but they’re not cocky.”
