Ben Blankenship finished third in the individual race and the University of Minnesota men's team placed third at the Big Ten XC Championships near Madison on Sunday. Coach Steve Plasencia talks about the race and the challenges ahead. Down the Backstretch: The guys came through on the day with their best performance so far this season. What do you do to prepare them for a challenge such as this? You said going in that there was some pressure because of the bad meet at Pre-nationals. How did that factor in for Big Tens?
Steve Plasencia: When the Big Ten gets together for a conference cross country championship there is going to be some “blood on the ground” when it’s over, you just hope too much of it isn’t your team's. The guys who have been around one or more of these championships know that. So I gently remind the team of the task at hand and basically let team leadership do the rest. Coming off a performance at the Pre Nationals that we were not happy with served to sharpen our focus in preparation.
DtB: You weren’t that far out of second, what were your expectations going into the meet?
SP: We said that realistically we were probably looking at third as a best possibility because Indiana and Wisconsin, to this point, had been significantly ahead of the rest of the teams. At the same time we felt that if one of the teams started to “show some cracks” we wanted to have our minds open to the possibility that we could move up.
DtB: They said on the tape of the race that the team was in seventh around halfway, so they came like gangbusters over the last half. Did the downhill help? Obviously nobody panicked. What was going through their minds midway and the last half?
SP: We had talked about the last several K of the course. We had heard they were fast, and saw nothing in viewing the course that would make us believe otherwise. In hindsight, after PreNats, we felt that one of the things that hurt us is that we got out a little over our heads early and then struggled over the last part of the race. We felt we could gain more by having our legs in the second half. After halfway, I counted Kevin Lachowitzer, our fourth guy, in 42nd. He finished 30th. Andrew Larsen we counted at that same point in 55th. He ended up 37th. I tried to emphasize to those two during the last half that they were gaining, and there were more individuals ahead that did not look nearly as strong as they did. Bringing down those big numbers helped significantly.
The guys nearer the front, Ben, Torch, and Pieter, really got into a good position relatively early and held in there. The initial pace was not fast, as I think Wisconsin and Indiana were kind of measuring each other.
DtB: All seven of the guys ran nearly within a minute of one another. Do you think the move up to 10K will help you or challenge the guys in Regions?
This week we will recover and train and not think too much about the Regional meet. I think we have trained over time that we can run either 8 or 10k, but as always there will be a couple of guys who are more comfortable with the longer distance, and a couple that are not thrilled with the prospect. You can’t dwell on that too much.
DtB: The individual race for first must have been nerve racking to watch. What were your thoughts as you saw it unfold? Did you and Ben learn anything from it that will help in the rest of the season?
SP: In all honesty I was moving around so much and then trying to count some scores at the finish that I really did not get to watch the race up front too closely. I think Ben found some answers for his cross country running and should move ahead into the next meets with confidence.
DtB: Did everybody come out of the meet healthy and ready to go for Regions?
SP: As far as I know, at this point we are healthy.
DtB: What are the obstacles there to overcome to go on the Nationals?
SP: Two obvious obstacles are Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
Down the stretch they come in the Big Ten men's race. Photo by Sean Hartnett
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