Occidental College’s cross country teams competed at the 2024 NCAA Division III Pre-Nationals Invitational Oct. 4 in Terre Haute, IN. The men’s team placed 36th out of 46 teams, and the women’s team placed 24th out of 44 teams. Jenna LeNay (junior) placed 28th among 389 competitors in the women’s 6K.
Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator for the Cross Country and Track Teams Dave Foley said Pre-Nationals is an opportunity for the teams to experience the course where the National Championship will take place in November.
“It’s that chance that you get to know [the course] a little bit — not just watch it on video, but to actually race on,” Foley said.
Noe Barraza (sophomore) was selected to represent Occidental men’s cross country this year and said that staying healthy is crucial during the training.
“I was just basically taking it day-by-day, just doing the stuff I need to do during the training, making sure I hit my mileage on each time and stay healthy going there and coming back,” Barraza said.
Barraza also said he tried to maintain a consistent schedule for nutrition.
“I get at least one banana per day, and I will grab Gatorade or something for an extra boost in electrolytes,” Barraza said.
According to Foley, Pre-Nationals always features high-quality athletes and rigorous competition from different colleges. Joshua Lo, (senior) who was selected the second time for Pre-Nationals, said that as the race gets closer, the nerves increase.
“Everyone is in the same boat. Everyone is super stressed. Everyone is anxious. So just talking to each other helps – like talking to your coach and knowing that we’ve done everything to prepare for it,” Lo said.
According to Foley, the teams are encouraged not to be overly concentrated on the outcome of a race.
“It’s an exercise of delayed gratification. It’s about showing up every day. You can see the improvement over time if you are not being so focused on things like ‘what’s the goal’ and being focused on the process of getting better,” Foley said.
Foley said that there is good stress and bad stress and knowing the difference between those two can help the teams.
“If you are nervous in a big race, that’s okay. That means you care. That’s good stress,” Foley said. “But being nervous and hyper-focused during a big race, that’s bad stress because it only brings you negative perceptions of yourself. My goal is to try to help people understand the difference between the two.”
Cross country is both an individual and team sport. The team score is comprised of scores from the five fastest runners from each team. Barraza said the team put forth a strong collective effort, and they all motivated each other in their own ways.
“We grew our team bonds through a lot of workouts and running together. People were always saying ‘good job’ to each other when we passed each other on workouts. So I think together we had a very strong team,” Barraza said.
Lo also said that simply seeing each other around was helpful and motivating to the team.
“Not all of us run together, but each one of us has at least one other person they run with, so we all work with each other.” Lo said. “Everyone racing in Indiana had someone else that’s a similar speed, so we each have at least one teammate that we work out with and can race with.”
Foley said the sport is always competitive and requires a lot of time and effort throughout the process.
“Sport matters to me a lot, but in the grand scheme [of things], it’s not that big of a deal. If you have fun while doing it each time, you’re gonna have a better time at the end,” Foley said.
Contact Aung Myat Htet at ahtet@oxy.edu
