Postmeet Quotes - Haskell Invitational
Oct. 8, 2011
Postmeet Quotes
Haskell Invitational
October 8, 2011
Assistant Coach Michael Whittlesey
On the performance of the KU women:
“I thought we competed really well today. I think that was one of Devin’s (Wiegers) best races in a long time. She put in a good, solid effort the whole way through. Madison Moser has been dealing with some health issues and she competed as hard as she could. It just really wasn’t there for her because her legs weren’t able to do what she’s capable of doing right now but she ran as hard as she could. I was very pleased with how Devin competed today. Like I said, it was one of her best races in a long time.”
On if the high winds had any effect on the KU runners:
“No, I thought everybody really competed. You look at the times and they were better than they were last year. The course was very firm. The competition from top to bottom was a lot deeper and a lot better, especially up front. Last year on the men’s side, second place was 26:26 and this year that was about fifth or sixth. So that shows you it was a much deeper race. I was really pleased on the men’s side of how they ran together and the effort they put up all the way through. Brendan Soucie had a great race. So did Sean Proehl. Our unattached guys did great job. I thought the effort was really there. The focus was really there, and I was very pleased with it.”
On if any men surprised him with their performances today:
“It was good to see Ben Wilson do well. He had been struggling with some health stuff. He’s back and competing really well right now. It is really good for Sean (Proehl) to have that step forward. I don’t think he knows how fast he really ran. He was a little disappointed with his time but I thought he competed really well. It was great to see Brendan (Soucie) do well. I told him I thought we might have a cross country runner in the future. A middle distance guy doesn’t always want to hear that but he competed really well and ran a nice time today.”
On how he determines who ran in today’s meet:
“It’s a local meet and rather than getting on a plane and going someplace where the competition is at the highest level this is a much better meet that they can come and see the form of the race and get in and compete well. When you get in a race when there’s 470 people you can run a fast time and be 60th or 100th. That was part of the decision for the middle distance guys. Some of it also is we are only going to bring 12 to the other meets and this was the next group.”
On what he evaluates after a meet like the one Saturday:
“The main thing we’re always looking for in every race is how you compete. Are you engaged in the race all the way through? Obviously that was the way it was with everybody across the board today. I don’t think there was anybody that shut it down or didn’t compete every step of the race.”
On the state of the men’s and women’s teams going into the Wisconsin meet next week:
“On the men’s side it’s looking like we’re getting our pieces back together. We’ve had a couple of illnesses that benched some guys. The meet’s going to separate them. We’re going to have to go seven and five because there’s two different races. Our front seven may not necessarily be our top seven. I think right now in any given race we’ve got nine or 10 guys that could be in our top five. I’m expecting our guys to be within 20 seconds from one to five. That’s really where we need to be. Workouts have been going great so now it’s about executing in the big race.”
“On the women’s side, (Rebeka) Stowe needs to get out and put herself in the top 10 or top five of that race. I feel the same way with Kara (Windisch). She needs to be a little further up front. She needs to be a little closer to Stowe then she was at the meet in Minnesota. Our other three girls really need to be running as a pack. The three of them need to run tight together. They didn’t do a good job of that in Minnesota. It’s easy to do it in practice when there’s no one else around you. It’s about getting out together and making the effort to run together in that first mile. Once you do that then it’s easier to stay together for the rest of the race.”
On the injury status of the teams:
“Right now it looks like everybody is healthy so hopefully that continues through the next week. I think we’ve got all of our pieces back together and no one’s hurt. We’ve had some really great workouts the last week.”
Junior Devin Wiegers
On the performances of her team and herself in Saturday’s race:
“We were just planning to go out and run hard and be confident and focused and I think all of us did really well. Me personally I really felt like that was a real good race. I was in it and I was focused.”
On if the high winds had any effect on her performance:
“When you’re warming up you kind of freak out a little bit but once you’re in the race I don’t think it was a big deal. It wasn’t that bad until I got to the back which was like gale-force winds. But it wasn’t that bad.”
On if having weekly workouts at Haskell’s course helped her in the race Saturday:
“We know where the little down hills are and the little uphills that some people don’t notice. I know footing-wise where some ruts are so it definitely helps.”
On if it was difficult running without many of her teammates by her side:
“Yes, because we really didn’t have a pack today but we had a lot of support. A lot of the girls who weren’t running came and supported us and I know that the people who were running supported each other.”
On what she got out of Saturday’s race:
“Some confidence and some good experience. It was a good race to gain some focus mentally.”
On if she did a good job of sticking to her gameplan:
“I think I did a good job of that. Right from the start of the race I just told myself, `Go!’ and I ended up in the front with another girl for a really long time so I just stuck with her and tried to push myself.”
On if she knows whether she will be running any other meets later in the season:
“I haven’t heard anything yet. This race was determining whether I would go (to Wisconsin). I’m praying that I go because I think I competed really well today and showed that I can compete.”
Redshirt Freshman Brendan Soucie
On his team’s performance:
“I think everyone competed really well today. I know Ben Wilson did a spectacular job. I felt pretty good. We tried to run as a pack but that didn’t work out very well unfortunately. It’s pretty windy and tough conditions but just had to compete with whomever you came up against.”
On if the high winds were a factor in today’s race:
“It wasn’t a huge factor but it does mess with the mind a little bit. Of course it’s difficult if you’re tall. It’s just one of those things that you have to fight through and forget about.”
On Haskell’s course:
“Haskell’s relatively flat compared to some of the other courses we’ve run at. Rim Rock is really tough so it’s nice to run on a course like this. The footing isn’t good but it’s a really flat course so it’s nice to run on it.”
On what he gained from Saturday’s race:
“For me it’s nice because the guys I raced with today aren’t in the top half of the men’s team. It was a good confidence booster for us to be able to come out here and actually compete with some people and finish high like we did today. It’s just nice for us to be able to compete.
