SE: K-State Men’s XC Ready to Take on Big 12 Championship
Oct 31, 2019 | Cross Country, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
This isn't the last week of the season for the K-State men's cross country's team, but there is certainly a climatic feeling within it.
"We've been focused on this (week) all season," redshirt sophomore Ethan Powell said. "This is the big one."
The big one: Also known as the Big 12 Championship.
The Wildcats will run against their conference foes on Saturday in Waco, Texas. It's a meet they build toward each week during the season, focusing on the work they put it more than any of the results leading up to this week.
Now, it's time to put that work to the test.
"It's kind of like hay's in the barn," sophomore Cooper Schroeder said. "The work's put in. You can't get faster now. It's just time to execute the plan and race well, race all out and race smart, and the rest will control itself."
"The physical stuff is done, for sure," Powell added. "We're just relying on kind of the mental side of things now. Nothing we do this week is going to make us that much faster, so it's just preparing ourselves for what that race is going to look like."
What exactly will the race look like? For starters, the men will run 8 kilometers (just under five miles). The Wildcats will do so on a course Schroeder said they know is "fast," against competition that includes three top-30 teams.
"It hurts," Powell described race, bluntly, while also laughing. "It hurts a lot."
The biggest key, he added, is having "mechanisms in place" to affectively deal with the pain when it arrives. His, for instance, are his teammates.
"It's what gets me through it the most," Powell said. "A lot more than when we're in track and we're all doing different events, this is 100 percent a team sport. Everybody from the people who are going to be coming in first for us and the person coming in 10th — we're taking 10 guys — everybody has a role to play. All these guys, we'd do anything for each other. I think knowing that those people have your back is what makes it possible to get through this long of a season and this hard of a race."
"The main part is run for your teammates," Schroeder added. "Running for each other, doing it for the guy next to you and just trying to represent the university well and Coach (Ryun Godfrey) well, and make sure K-State distance is going up."
As of late, K-State's men have done exactly that.
Two years ago, they finished fourth at the Big 12 Championship — the program's highest placement at the conference meet since 1995. Last season, with basically a brand-new team, K-State came in fifth. Any placement better than ninth on Saturday would mark the program's best three-year stretch at the conference meet since finishing second, tied for third and second from 1990-92, well before this group of Wildcats were born.
Even now, K-State's a young team. Two weeks ago, at the Under Armour Pre-Nationals Invitational, all seven of K-State's men who competed were freshmen or sophomores. The team's youth and the program's recent history has allowed a pair of powerful dynamics to combine, Powell said.
"For running in college, there's two forces that are at work. There's the youth side of things where you're really excited, you're really hungry, you want to get after it, and then there's also the experience where you get people on their fourth or fifth year of doing things and they really know how it's done," he said. "I think we're really starting to get into a good mix of those two things, where we have guys coming in who want to compete, who know they're going to have to fight to get a spot on this team to go to conference, but at the same time they've been there before.
"So, for a lot of us, this is our second time going. That's a nice confidence boost compared to last year, but we still have a long way to go, so we're not getting complacent."
Five Wildcats going to Waco raced in the Big 12 Championship last season, led by Schroeder finishing 22nd. This season, the Wildcats have finished second or third in three of their four meets.
The lone exception was the Under Armour Pre-Nationals Invitational that included 11 top-30 programs. There, the Wildcats also got a boost from the return of Jackson Schroeder, Cooper's older brother. In his first race in more than a year, Jackson finished second on the team and broke his personal-best at K-State by more than 50 seconds. His teammates look forward to seeing him run his first conference race this weekend.
"He's in really good shape," Powell said. "We're really excited to see him kind of get out there and be able to compete at the level we know he can, finally getting in there and representing at conference."
This isn't the last week of the season for the K-State men's cross country's team, but there is certainly a climatic feeling within it.
"We've been focused on this (week) all season," redshirt sophomore Ethan Powell said. "This is the big one."
The big one: Also known as the Big 12 Championship.
The Wildcats will run against their conference foes on Saturday in Waco, Texas. It's a meet they build toward each week during the season, focusing on the work they put it more than any of the results leading up to this week.
Now, it's time to put that work to the test.
"It's kind of like hay's in the barn," sophomore Cooper Schroeder said. "The work's put in. You can't get faster now. It's just time to execute the plan and race well, race all out and race smart, and the rest will control itself."
"The physical stuff is done, for sure," Powell added. "We're just relying on kind of the mental side of things now. Nothing we do this week is going to make us that much faster, so it's just preparing ourselves for what that race is going to look like."
What exactly will the race look like? For starters, the men will run 8 kilometers (just under five miles). The Wildcats will do so on a course Schroeder said they know is "fast," against competition that includes three top-30 teams.
"It hurts," Powell described race, bluntly, while also laughing. "It hurts a lot."
The biggest key, he added, is having "mechanisms in place" to affectively deal with the pain when it arrives. His, for instance, are his teammates.
"It's what gets me through it the most," Powell said. "A lot more than when we're in track and we're all doing different events, this is 100 percent a team sport. Everybody from the people who are going to be coming in first for us and the person coming in 10th — we're taking 10 guys — everybody has a role to play. All these guys, we'd do anything for each other. I think knowing that those people have your back is what makes it possible to get through this long of a season and this hard of a race."
"The main part is run for your teammates," Schroeder added. "Running for each other, doing it for the guy next to you and just trying to represent the university well and Coach (Ryun Godfrey) well, and make sure K-State distance is going up."
As of late, K-State's men have done exactly that.
Two years ago, they finished fourth at the Big 12 Championship — the program's highest placement at the conference meet since 1995. Last season, with basically a brand-new team, K-State came in fifth. Any placement better than ninth on Saturday would mark the program's best three-year stretch at the conference meet since finishing second, tied for third and second from 1990-92, well before this group of Wildcats were born.
Even now, K-State's a young team. Two weeks ago, at the Under Armour Pre-Nationals Invitational, all seven of K-State's men who competed were freshmen or sophomores. The team's youth and the program's recent history has allowed a pair of powerful dynamics to combine, Powell said.
"For running in college, there's two forces that are at work. There's the youth side of things where you're really excited, you're really hungry, you want to get after it, and then there's also the experience where you get people on their fourth or fifth year of doing things and they really know how it's done," he said. "I think we're really starting to get into a good mix of those two things, where we have guys coming in who want to compete, who know they're going to have to fight to get a spot on this team to go to conference, but at the same time they've been there before.
"So, for a lot of us, this is our second time going. That's a nice confidence boost compared to last year, but we still have a long way to go, so we're not getting complacent."
Five Wildcats going to Waco raced in the Big 12 Championship last season, led by Schroeder finishing 22nd. This season, the Wildcats have finished second or third in three of their four meets.
The lone exception was the Under Armour Pre-Nationals Invitational that included 11 top-30 programs. There, the Wildcats also got a boost from the return of Jackson Schroeder, Cooper's older brother. In his first race in more than a year, Jackson finished second on the team and broke his personal-best at K-State by more than 50 seconds. His teammates look forward to seeing him run his first conference race this weekend.
"He's in really good shape," Powell said. "We're really excited to see him kind of get out there and be able to compete at the level we know he can, finally getting in there and representing at conference."
Players Mentioned
K-State Track and Field | Tyson Invitational Recap
Wednesday, February 18
K-State Track & Field | DeLoss Dodds Invitational Recap
Wednesday, February 04
K-State Track & Field | Thane Baker Invitational Recap
Monday, January 19
K-State XC | NCAA Midwest Regional Recap
Saturday, November 15
