Women’s XC crosses country, participates in Nationals in NM

Four of the seven runners from the women's cross country team traveled to Hobbs, New Mexico to run in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I Championship. Erika Manley, Sierra Downs, Jaqueline Goncalves, and Anajae Register competed in the five kilometer run on November 12.

In order for a team to officially place in the race there must be at least five runners represented, which left the team one runner shy of being able to officially score. Coach Erin Cahill indicated that only four girls on the team posted times that qualified them for nationals this year. This is an improvement over last year when the team only had two runners, neither of whom qualified for nationals; 2011 is only the second year Mercer has had a women's cross country team.

Erika Manley posted the best time from Mercer with 23:50.56.

Despite not the fact that none of the women on the team placed, coach Erin Cahill said she believes that it was a learning experience for those who attended.

Downs, who had the second best time with 24:54.65, said she took a lot away from getting to travel to New Mexico. "Going to nationals put the entire season into perspective. We worked really hard during the season for something. It made everything come together. There was a purpose to it," said Downs.

Cahill believes that the team still stuck together to support one another. "Even though [the whole team] didn't go they still pushed each other. It shows how close we grew as a team. [The women are] running for everyone at Mercer," she said.

The last race of the season set the stage for good scores at Nationals. The team placed second at the Region XIX Championships on October 22, 2011. Manley placed fifth over, while Downs, Goncalves, and Register placed seventh, ninth, and tenth respectively.

The runners said that the New Mexico climate added new challenges that the runners were not used to. "The thing that added the challenged I think was that it was windy and dusty. I don't think any of the girls are used to that," said Downs.

Cahill realized the wind added an extra factor, but thinks that the girls overcame it. "The girls did pretty well. The only issue was it was very windy. The wind effected everyone's times," Cahill said.

"The weather was surprisingly chilly, but the course that we ran on was so awesome. On the course there were hills that were really short and steep. There's five or six of them in a row, and the rest of the course was flat," said Downs.

During the off season the runners will continue to train together. Next season Cahill hopes to bring five or seven girls to nationals. "The goal for next season is to have a full scoring team," she said.