Women's cross country team represents Harding well in NCAA Harding was well represented by many sports teams for both men and women. One of the less visible, cross country, became more visible as the Lady Bisons competed in the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference, placing fourth out of 10. They also placed fourth out of 12 at the NAIA Regionals, where three members qualified for Nationals. Those who qualified for Nationals were freshmen Kelly Lauterbach, Cheri Scharff and Diane Grubbs. "It has been an exciting year. This was my first year to run cross country and I really enjoyed it. It's very different from anything I've ever done," Grubbs said. The Lady Bisons participated in eight meets, which consist of one race of 5,000 meters (3.1 miles). The best times for the team this year was Lauterbach with 19:03, Scharffwith 19:04, Grubbs with 19:20 and Katie Fant with 21:20. Every course is different so the times at different meets are always relative to the particular conditions of the course. The team prepared for the season by training six days a week, twice a day for the first four to six weeks of school. The ladies ran an average of 50 miles per week and also trained on weights. While the girls did train year-round, their training for the season occurred in cycles. The first cycle was building an aerobic base in order to enable them to run long distances. The second cycle was training on hills and repeats, and the last cycle was the "peaking" cycle, where the athletes are trained to run their best times. In addition to their placing at Regionals and Conference, the team also won their meets at Southern Arkansas and Ouachita Baptist, placed second at Rhodes and in the top 10 at Oklahoma State. "The girls are all hard workers , and they are all very academically oriented. They are also very spiritually focused, so they meshed together well," CoachBryan Phillips said. "I really enjoyed this season because of the people on the team. Everyone was very friendly and we had a real diverse group, which made our team very interesting," Fant said. Since this year's team was primarily freshmen, Phillips expects them to improve. "They are very talented and will continue to improve if they work together as a team." - Christina Weber Women's Cross Country. First row: Cheri Scharff, HeatherMayberry, Jessica Poirier, Katie Fant. Second row: Kelly Lauterbach, Tennille Tinsley, Amber Howard, Diane Grubbs. Photo by Jeff Montgomery . Women's Cross Country 269
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc5NA==