The Gustavus Women’s Cross Country team is building toward a strong finish to their 2010 season.

The team most recently competed in the Tori Neubauer Invite this past weekend in La Crosse, Wis.

“[The meet] was really good. Over half the team had [personal records]. La Crosse is one of our favorite courses to run, and we are always really excited. Overall, across the board, we had an excellent showing, but we didn’t do as well as I expected, taking 9th out of 27 teams,” Senior Sarah Hofflander said.

The Women’s Cross Country team has been consistent year- round and plans to capitalize on their consistent success for the MIAC Championships on Oct. 30 at Como Park in St. Paul, Minn.

“We are hoping to place in the top three for the MIAC. Last year we took fifth. This year is really different because we have lots of depth, in terms of our runners,” Hofflander said. “We have the potential to go all the way to Nationals; it’s just a matter of actually buckling down and [doing] it. All the potential is there. We just have to have the fire lit under our butts and get after it.”

The women will have a tough challenge competing at the MIAC with other strong teams such as St. Olaf and Bethel, who have beaten the Gusties in earlier invites this season. However, the women are motivated to compete with the Oles and the Royals to try and win the MIAC crown.

“We are always after the Oles and relatively close to beating them, but they have such a large team that they are always pretty strong. Bethel has a really good team, so [we want to] get after Bethel, and St. Thomas is usually up there as well,” Hofflander said.

No matter what the results are at the upcoming MIAC Championships, the team has had a great season so far.

“As a team, we are really strong. We have a lot of depth, so when [women] have gotten injured, we have other [women] who can step up and race. We’ve been consistently improving throughout the year, and we want to finish with an outstanding race at the MIAC Championships,” Senior Abby Karl said.

“This season has been really great. We’ve had a lot of good showings at meets. In terms of team cohesion, this is the closest the team has been in quite some time, so it’s been a really good season in terms of team performance. We have the opportunity to go to Nationals, but we just have to step it up a little bit,” Hofflander said.

The team has had the chance to go to Nationals in the past but hasn’t succeeded. The women hope this year might be different. “There have been times in the past when we’ve had the chance to go to Nationals, but we just don’t follow through. This year we are trying to really get after it and do it,” Hofflander said.

Yet, if there is one thing that has led to success this season, it has been the team aspect. “I love everything about running, especially the team camaraderie this year. We are more cohesive than last year. We are trying to push each other to succeed and not just individually push ourselves,” Karl said.

“Every meet we’ve gone to this season, we’ve had the best running weather that I can remember. The team’s attitude is always so positive and pumped up to run,” Hofflander said. “The other really enjoyable part is that we do pack running a lot.

We run with people on our team and together we pass people, and so we’ve had great success with pack running to help our own teammates along.”

The Gusties will look to utilize pack running to have a strong finish to their 2010 season next weekend at the MIAC Championships.