North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Men Looking for Complete Race
11/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 20, 2010
Cross Country Teams Head to NCAA Championships Monday
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. - Freshman Andrew Colley is ready for all the little things to stop conspiring against the NC State men's cross country team.
There have been no major injuries that have slowed the 16th-ranked Wolfpack this season. Just a few minor setbacks, like the cramp he suffered midway through the NCAA Pre-National Meet back in October.
And he and 2009 All-American Ryan Hill were both slowed during the ACC Championships and the NCAA Southeast Regional by colds.
Both still finished in the top 10 at the conference meet, and the Wolfpack finished second as a team. Colley was sixth and Hill was 11th at regionals, and the Wolfpack finished third, behind William & Mary and Duke.
Even though head coach Rollie Geiger's team did not earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship, they easily earned an at-large bid to Monday's race.
But those results aren't exactly in line with the Wolfpack's goals of winning the conference, winning the regional and finishing in the top 10 at nationals. So the team is looking to make a statement Monday afternoon in the program's 23rd appearance at the national meet.
"We've done well as a team, I guess," said Colley, a redshirt freshman from Williamsburg, Va. "But in just about every race we've had something not go our way. None of us have even had a pretty good race at the same time. We've always had a little problem, here or there.
"I think we're all due to have a good day together."
Colley has had an excellent first year of competition, with four top 10 finishes this year. That's tied with Hill, the junior who won All-America honors at last year's national meet. In fact, the only time Hill, who was second at the Pre-National race in September, has finished outside the Top 10 was when he was 11th at the NCAA regional race in Louisville.
But, as a team, the Wolfpack is still chasing its standing goals.
"I think it hurts us when we don't win the ACCs or make the top two at the regionals," Colley said. "But I think that we're under the radar now and people aren't going to expect as much out of us.
"I think we can use that to our advantage and as a motivation to let people know that just because we didn't do so well in a couple of races that if everything goes right for us, we can do really well at nationals."
For Colley, returning to Terre Haute, where he finished 16th in the Pre-National race, is an opportunity to improve on what he considered a disappointing performance.
Colley came into the season with high hopes, after finishing third in February at the U.S. Junior National Cross Country meet and second among American runners (43rd overall) at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Poland.
His first season of collegiate competition has been a learning experience. He's trying to shake the bad habit of going out too fast, too early, causing him to lose his edge when he tries to make a kick at the end of the race. He's learning to run from the back of the lead pack, instead of trying to be out front all of the time.
"It's been a good experience, getting a few [8,000-meter races] under my belt and learning to run with the big dogs," Colley said. "I've now raced against countless All-Americans and countless teams that have been ranked in the Top 10 in the country. That's been helpful.
"We've beaten a lot of tough teams this year and I think that'll definitely help us going into the national race."
But now it's up to the team to make that final kick, to accomplish the goals that have been a hallmark of Geiger's successful program. And that's Colley's ambition for Monday's race.
"I think if everything goes right for us," he said, "we'll end up doing really well for the end of the season."
You may contact Tim Peeler at mailto:tim_peeler@ncsu.edu..
