Consistency is something every team strives to attain during their season, and the men's and women's cross-country teams have each found its own reliable runner.
Freshman Heather O'Brien and senior Noah Droddy have developed a strong race pace, both placing 23rd overall last Friday at the Indiana Intercollegiates and leading their respective teams to an 11th place finish overall. Split into Big (Div. I) and Little (Div. II and III) State divisions, the DePauw teams both placed 4th with all of the non-Div. I. schools.
"Overall I really enjoyed the race because we were able to encounter some Div. I. schools and get a feel for what cross-country is like in the big picture," O'Brien said of the heightened competition.
Both teams are running very closely to some top Div. III competitors, only scoring six points behind the national qualifying Manchester College team.
"Team-wise, it's the best we've done at this particular meet in four years," Droddy said. "A few guys will have off days, but we had other guys step up. It's nice that both teams are on the same page."
The scores from both teams nearly mirror each other. Both leaders took 23rd place and the teams finished 11th out of the 27 total schools, which was also fourth in the Little State division. Of just Div. III competitors, Droddy finished first and O'Brien second.
"Both teams are alike in many ways, they feed off each other," head coach Kori Stroffregen said. "I don't know if it's anything intentional, but I'm glad both teams now have some momentum."
Each team has runners that are showing improvement week-to-week, such as sophomore Hope Jordan (44th place) and junior Siri Retrum (51st), as well as junior Stu Newstat (78th) and Bryan Myers, who made had his breakout race as a freshman placing 107th overall.
The cross-country teams will have a break in the competition for a few weeks, with their next meet on Oct. 6 when they co-host the Gibson Family Invitational in Terra Haute, Ind. This course will also host the national meet in November.
"This meet will probably be double the size it usually is, teams want to come in and preview the course," Stroffregen said. "The field will be mostly Div. III. schools. It'll be a real fun race to see where we stack up."