The men’s cross country team is hoping to do what it hasn’t done in seven years: send the entire team to Berea, Ohio, on Nov. 21 to compete in the NCAA Championships.

The Blue and Gold will travel to Mount Morris, N.Y., to compete in the NCAA Atlantic Regional Championships on Saturday. In order to qualify for the national championship, the Bombers must place in at least the top-five schools at the meet.

Senior captain Curt Bell is the only runner who has had a taste of the NCAA Championships after qualifying individually last year.

“From a personal standpoint, there’s nothing I’d rather see than the whole team going to nationals,” Bell said. “It’s been our goal since the first day of summer training to get the team back.”

The Bombers have not made an appearance at the NCAA Championships since the beginning of the decade when the team made appearances for three consecutive years — 2000, 2001 and 2002. The team placed 18th, ninth, and 17th in those appearances, respectively. Despite the drought, Bell said he is optimistic heading into the deciding meet.

“I don’t think there is any reason to expect that the seven guys that end up racing aren’t going to do their absolute best and have their best races of the season,” he said. “We’re tapering now. We’re cutting back on a lot of running so we can all be as fresh as possible for regionals.”

The team has made five of its nine trips to the NCAA Championships during Nichols’ 17-year career as the Bombers’ head coach. Nichols said the team is capable of performing well Saturday.

“I believe they’re very prepared,” he said. “It’s the most important week of the year. They’ve been looking forward to this all year.”

Senior Phil Abbott said a top-five team finish is a definite possibility. Abbott said the team is well under the radar heading into the Mount Morris meet.

“We’ve had a lot of sickness, a lot of injury,” Abbott said. “We haven’t had a really solid weekend yet, but we’re definitely capable, so I don’t think people are going to be looking for us as much. Whatever we do is going to be a surprise to everyone. We’re very confident in our abilities.”

After a strong showing at the Empire 8 Championships, Bell said he is encouraged by the team’s performance this late in the season. He stressed the importance of teamwork in deciding whether the team performs well.

“The more we can run in a pack and all finish very close to each other, the better shot we have at getting into the top five,” he said.

Nichols said the top-five finishers will factor into whether or not the Bombers’ can place in the top-five teams at the meet.

“We’re only running seven, and they score five,” Nichols said. “So every score counts.”

Abbott said optimism is the key heading into Saturday’s meet, and the Bombers have no lack of that. With a great roster, the Bombers have their heads held high heading into the fray.

“We have the strongest top five as a whole that we’ve had in a very long time,” Abbott said. “If we put everything together, we will be just as good as any of those teams who have a strong top five.”

 

Empire 8 Cross-Country Championship - 10/31/2009