Women's team prepare for fifth-consecutive national appearance

A legacy continues as the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the year, Kori Stoffregen, and the women's cross country team prepare for their fifth-consecutive trip to the NCAA Div. III Championships. After a third-place finish at the Div. III Great Lakes Regional Meet, the women's team received an at-large bid and jumped seven spots in the national rankings to 18th. DePauw will send five Great Lakes all-region runners to the national meet, including junior Lauren Reich, senior Alison Case, junior Ellen Mail, senior Leah Seigel and freshman Claire Hollis.

After four consecutive appearances at nationals, the women's team is not satisfied on just making the finals, but is focused on leaving its mark at the meet. One encouraging factor is their experience. Out of seven varsity runners, six of them have been part of the regional-national team, either competing or as an alternate.

Senior Julie Theibert said the team's past experiences at the national meet, as well as the team's development throughout the season has put the Tigers in a good position for nationals this year.

"My freshman year we finished 16th and last year we finished seventh, and not only are we going to the national meet this year, we are competing at the national meet. We have become a force to be reckon with, and that's really exciting." Theibert said.

Coach Stoffregen expects Reich to pace the team, as she has all year, Reich finished second at the SCAC meet and sixth at the Great Lakes Regional Meet.

Another front runner for DePauw is Case, who has consistently finished near the top for the team. Case placed sixth in the SCAC meet, earning all-conference honors. She followed up that performance with a 14th-place finish in the Great Lakes Regional Meet and has a top time in the 6K at 22:28.90.

Stoffregen emphasized the importance of DePauw's front runners, pointing out that their leadership and performance will affect the team's overall finish.

"Lauren is very capable of earning all-American honors in the meet this weekend and Alison Case, if she runs really well, she has a chance of earning all-American too," Stoffregen said, "If that would happen, that would give us a chance to do really well as a team."

For the past week, the women have been reflecting back on the season and developing new strategies for the national meet. Reich hopes to apply lessons learned from last week's regional meet to competition this Saturday.

"I took from it that I had found who I need to go look for at nationals and who I need to be able to compete with to be All-American," Reich said.

Case had similar thoughts about the regional meet.

"It was just a good measuring stick to see where we were. Coach always says it's like icing on the cake because we are all feeling ready for this meet," Case said.

The NCAA Div. III Championships will take place on Saturday at Hanover College in Hanover, Ind.