The men and women of the DePauw cross-country team will travel to Springfield, Ohio tomorrow for the NCAC championship meet.
For the men, the team is seeded by NCAC coaches to finish fourth in a tie with Oberlin College, with Wabash College wining the conference. DePauw head coach Kori Stoffregen thinks his team will most likely finish in or near that place.
"That's probably a good guess for us," Stoffregen said. "We hope to do better with that and know we can do better than that."
But for Stoffregen, the chance for him and his team to learn the characteristics of the new conference will be on their minds.
"It does take a while to really understand what other teams are doing," Stoffregen said. "It took us a couple years when we went into the SCAC, learning the characteristics of other teams. So there's a bit of unknown, but we are excited for the meet."
On the women's side, the Tigers are predicted to come in second to Oberlin College by a 12-point margin. Stoffregen also agrees with that seeding but thinks his team has a chance to win if his runners turn in strong performances.
"We have a good team, and we haven't had that meet where we've all just clicked," Stoffregen said. "We're all just hopeful that's coming. If that happens, we're an awful good team in a hurry."
The Tigers, led by sophomore Siri Retrum, have turned in steady performances all year and will hopefully all come together in the conference championships.
"We know she's rested up, and she will be ready to go," Stoffregen said of Retrum. "The next four or five girls are really interchangeable, and it all depends on who is going to run better."