The Saint Mary's cross country team will travel to Illinois this afternoon to compete in the Eagle Invitational hosted by Benedictine University. Although the Belles will compete Oct. 30 in the MIAA cross-country championship, Friday's race marks the final non-conference meet of the year.
The Belles are taking full advantage of the opportunity to put forth one last surge of effort before they prepare for the conference meet.
Coach Dave Barstis is confident in his runners' abilities.
"We traditionally do well there and I look for that to continue," Barstis said.
But the team hesitates to place too much weight on this race. With one more intense week of training before fall break, the team will treat the race as another workout, with the main goal being to have everyone in prime position to peak in three weeks.
Saint Mary's biggest challenge in the upcoming weeks is to keep themselves focused and healthy. One of their main goals is to take extra precaution in the next couple of weeks to keep themselves in top shape.
As fall break approaches, the runners are trying to find the right balance between taking it easy and keeping themselves in shape. Practices in the past couple of weeks have focused on pulling everything together.
"[We're working on] getting our pace down," Sara Otto said. Workouts have gotten shorter and more focused on speed. Otto's teammate junior Becky Feauto realizes the challenge that they face in the upcoming weeks.
"Over fall break we'll be on our own, so we're pushing ourselves to work hard through these work-outs," Feauto said.
