Runners look to set personal bests, advance to Nationals

After a successful inaugural season of indoor track and field, the women’s cross country team made the transition to outdoor track flawlessly, with several runners setting new personal bests this season.

“Indoor track prepared us really well for outdoor track,” Head Coach Koby Styles said. “The girls were able to carry their fitness from February on through March and now April.”

Despite a tough opening at the West Texas A&M Spring Break Invitational, the team quickly picked themselves up and had a successful outing at the UT-Arlington Invitational that led to invitations to the Texas Relays at the University of Texas at Austin for junior Ashley Flores and sophomores Kim and Michelle Krezonoski.

Flores moved closer to making the NCAA D-II Nationals provisional time of 4:35.34 in the 1,500-meter run, setting a new personal best of 4:40.37 at the Texas Relays. According to Styles, in order to qualify for Nationals, a runner must make either the automatic time or provisional time at least once in the season. If accomplished, a runner is automatically qualified, no matter how the rest of their season pans out.

“I’m most proud of Ashley being able to compete at a more consistent level all year,” Styles said. “She’s putting in workouts that she didn’t even come close to doing last year. If we get her rested, she’s due for a huge breakout soon. She’s only a sophomore, eligibility-wise, on the track, so you’ve got a sophomore who’s one of the top in the conference running that fast. In a couple of years, she’s going to be in contention to win an individual national title, if not this year, if she can get there.”

The Krezonoski’s also made the most of their Texas Relays appearance. Michelle set a personal and program best 10,000-meter time, finishing at 38:11.89, while Kim set a personal best of 38:32.52.

“Both Kim and Michelle have been running really well,” Styles said. They didn’t have as great of a cross country season as both of them would have liked to have had base off their results last year, but they went home to Canada over Christmas break and they came back in great shape and with a new purpose and meaning for training and racing.”

Styles said that Kim’s personal best of 19 minutes in the 5,000-meter run is set to be shattered this season with Krezonoski inching ever so closely to the sub-18 minute mark.

“In that race at the Texas Relays, she crossed the 5K mark in under 19 minutes with 3 miles still left in the race. That shows just how much more fit she is than last year. The same with Michelle. Michelle’s been getting in great workouts. I’m expecting big things from them over the next few weeks to end the season.”

With all the experience the women have gained through this season, Styles said he believes the team is set for a big finish to the end of their season.

“They can see the conference championship just right around the corner,” Styles said. “This week is a huge week for us. Our upcoming meet at the Kansas Relays is always one of our favorite meets to go to. The girls realize we have two huge meets left, this one and conference, so they’re really excited.”

Styles noted that like their Indoor Track season, the team will not have a real chance at a conference championship since they only participate in distance events. However, the team does hope to improve on the success of the Indoor Championships, from which they brought home three medals.

“We’re only competing in the 800, 1,500, 5K, 10K and steeple chase,” Styles said. “That’s only five events, so we’re looking to get a medal in each of the events, if not more than one. We want to do well in all of the events we compete in, and we also want everyone that runs to set new personal bests and run the fastest they’ve ever run.”

To help prepare for conference, Styles said he plans on lowering the team’s already high mileage workouts to give the women a little rest to have them at their freshest.

Once conference is over, however, Styles said he hopes that Flores, and possibly more, hit the provisional time in their events to make a run at a national title.

“Conference championships are just a bragging right,” he said. “You’ve got to chase those fast time if you want to get to the national championships, and I believe that is the hardest thing to do in our sport, because it’s all down to you. That’s why we try to go to some of the bigger races against the division one teams – to try and get into those faster races and give us more confidence.”

Once the season is all said and done, Styles said there won’t be much time before the team hits the trails again to start training for the start of next year’s cross-country season and the next cycle of running. The women will take two or three weeks off before continuing to train on their own, as well as hopping into a few road races before reconvening in June. Once those practices start, he said the team will hit it hard in hopes of continuing the successes of this season.

“We’re only losing one senior at the end of the season,” Styles said. “We’re young, and we’re deep, so the next few years will be pretty fun to watch as far as this group. We feel that we’re the best in the conference as far as distant runners, and we’re starting to prove that this track season, and if you take these girls now and put them in the fall – yes, we win conference. They had a change in mentality and they’re running minutes faster than they did in the fall. I want this momentum to carry over into the fall and the cross country season. I really didn’t recruit that heavily, because I know this team has the capability to be the best team Midwestern has ever had. I believe that we are going to put ourselves in really good shape to win the conference championships again, win regionals and have a good chance of winning a national championships.”