For all the disappointment this past weekend, Bomber fans can still rely on an old faithful to make an NCAA championship appearance. Now here’s the trick: Who can name that team?

Despite valiant efforts Saturday, it’s definitely not the football team nor the women’s soccer team. Give up? It’s the women’s cross country team, and going to NCAAs is what it does.

This Saturday in Ohio, eight women (the top seven finishers from the state tournament and one alternate) will put on the Blue and Gold against the best competition in the country. This year makes it seven straight trips to Nationals. In case you didn’t know, that’s better than any other team on South Hill.

Sophomore Lindsey Nadolski said that the team consistently travels to Nationals because Head Coach Bill Ware centers the team’s training on the tournament. While some teams train hard from the middle of the summer and then throughout the season, the Bombers train steadily harder as the season goes on.

“Wally has been coaching the women’s team for quite a while,” Nadolski said. “He deserves a great deal of credit in finding what works and what doesn’t as far as our training goes.”

It’s a regimen that’s worked wonders for the Bombers during the better part of a decade. But recruiting is also part of it, and every year, the Bombers attract young runners ready to make an immediate impact. Last year, it was rookie twin sisters Elizabeth and Jessica Wilcox (both now running at Division-I Murray State in Kentucky). This year the South Hill squad is sending three freshmen to Nationals.

To have so many young runners perform strong early is a testament to Ware’s training regimen. Freshman Lauren Boardman said that the difference between high school and college is dramatic.

“I’ve never had muscle strains,” she said. “I got my first strain this year. I’ve never had to run with pain.”

But the pain is nothing compared to the anxiety of running her first Nationals meet.

“I’m pretty nervous,” she said. “I keep thinking about it and how I’ve never gone with a team like this.”

It’s something she should get used to. Nadolski only got to experience Nationals on the sidelines last year, but it gave her a taste of what to expect.

“It was definitely the craziest race I have ever witnessed,” she said. “I’ve never seen spectators be so into cross country in my life.”

But as crazy as things get, it probably won’t take long for the Bombers on this team to get used to Nationals.