DePauw got its first taste of NCAC championship competition Saturday when the men's and women's cross-country teams competed in Springfield, Ohio.
Both teams produced mixed results due to injuries to some of their top runners. The women's team placed third out of nine teams and the men took fifth out of 10 teams.
Freshmen Hope Jordan and Beth King and senior Lisa Becharas were all hurt, but played a big role in the women's team getting third, said head coach Kori Stoffregen.
"The kids who wanted to perform better who were banged up didn't run as well as they had hoped," Stoffregen said. "Those were three of our top seven girls. Knowing we were so close to second, that was tough."
Sophomore Siri Retrum led the Tigers with an 11th place finish, followed by senior Kelsey Moore in 14th. Oberlin College won the NCAC crown followed by Ohio Wesleyan University, just eight points ahead of DePauw.
"What's exciting is that we can get healthy in two weeks for our regional meet," Stoffregen said. "We can be a better team than this week because it was unfortunate that these injuries landed during the conference meet."
The Tigers will need to make quick work with the regional meet set for Nov. 12.
"A couple girls who were disappointed in their races are fired up to turn that around," Stoffregen said. "I think we'll change our race strategy, we won't go out as aggressive and maybe try to run from behind."
For the men, Stoffregen was pointing to this meet last week as a way to assess the strength of the conference.
"The depth was probably better than I had anticipated," Stoffregen said. "It was a very good meet. The next DePauw teams are going to have to be on top of their games at all times, because you can't be going through the motions and expect to do well in this conference."
Junior Noah Droddy finished third overall in the race while, like the women, the team was affected by a key injury in senior Pete Richard. According to Stoffregen, the result might have been different had he not have been injured. Instead, senior Tyler Giesting followed Droddy with a 16th place finish, and sophomore Adam Cecil placing 33rd, third for the team
"We have some young guys who are learning and getting better and excited about running," Stoffregen said. "When they look around the conference, hopefully they see that we have to work harder to get to the top."
This season, Stoffregen has pushed the team harder than he usually has in practice. With the overall strength of the conference, that sort of intensity needs to become the norm in order for DePauw to develop the depth that other schools have.
"For the men to get better, they need to all buy into being a good team," Stoffregn said. "We've got young guys on the team, and if they are committed to working hard and dedicated to the sport, we can be a lot better than we are."
Though the team has a legitimate front runner in Droddy, more depth needs to be developed with four seniors graduating this year.
"It was definitely a tougher conference than we came from in the SCAC," Droddy said. "There are a lot of teams we'll race next weekend at the regional meet. The competition is a lot deeper than what we experienced in the SCAC, and I think we'll eventually enjoy that."
Droddy is confident the team can commit to improving after putting its first NCAC conference championship behind them.
"It's important to get them some experience as we graduate four seniors next year," Droddy said. "This year has been dedicated to changing our attitude towards running and getting people excited about it."