Upcoming meet tests teams

Senior distance runner Colton Wooldridge makes his way to the finish line following his run at the Southern Stampede on Sept. 20, 2014, hosted by the Missouri Southern. The Lions finished in third place overall while Wooldridge came home in 29th position.

John Davidson | The Chart

Senior distance runner Colton Wooldridge makes his way to the finish line following his run at the Southern Stampede on Sept. 20, 2014, hosted by the Missouri Southern. The Lions finished in third place overall while Wooldridge came home in 29th position.

Missouri Southern cross country teams will take to the course tomorrow in Fayetteville, Ark., as the Razorbacks host the 26th annual Chile Pepper Invitational.

The men’s team is coming off a third place finish in a race where senior Eric Schott took home the title, earning him MIAA Cross Country Athlete of the Week.  Meanwhile, the women’s team will try to improve on a fourth-place finish from its previous contest.

“We have a big test coming up down in Arkansas for the Chile Pepper,” said head coach Bryan Schiding. “That will be a good tell of where we are as far as our fitness level and mentality.”

Members from both teams talked about their need to improve coming into tomorrow’s race and how they have to try to “pack up,” or have all the runners stay together throughout the course of the race.

“One team, one time” has been a motto the teams have been trying to live by.

“The main thing we need to improve upon from our last meet is pack running,” said senior Colton Wooldridge. “We had a big gap between our number 1 runner and our number 5. The closer together we are, the better odds we have of winning the meet.”

“If we start staying together during practice, we will stay together during races and will score better,” said senior Adrian Todd.

Practices have been getting tougher for the teams as they have begun to increase the number of miles they run and started to incorporate speed work into their programs. Cross-country athletes routinely run over 100 miles a week.

“Staying mentally focused is key at this moment,” said junior Kindra Emberton. “We are pushing each other every day in practice and making sure we stay healthy.”

The Lions will face tough competition for the second consecutive week as they run against another group of big time Division I schools including Baylor, Kansas State, LSU, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Wichita State and UTEP.

“We’ll get to see some big competition, so hopefully we can capitalize on the opportunity,” said senior Andrew Webster. “I just need to push through the stagnant, uncomfortable stage and stay smooth.”