What they all understand very clearly is the competition is top shelf. Bedard thinks some of them may be even a bit naïve about just how good, especially with the sport coming out of a pandemic and many athletes who would have graduated are back for a final run.
Being a bit in the dark is not a bad thing, however. What he likes most is none of them are timid about the challenge which awaits.
“My biggest success when it comes to progression is racing better competition,” Willems said. “I find when I race somebody who is better than me, I get pushed to get better; they drag me along to a better time, which is good. There’s a guy from New Mexico, Carlos Salcido, I’ve raced him three times, always come a centimeter behind. He’s there, and hopefully I can reverse him.
“In the first race, I’ll see who’s good to chase and then I’ll use that for the years to come as a push for me to strive for better times.”
Being pushed is not a new concept for any of them. Mitchel is positive the group he runs with, which includes a host of qualifying upperclassmen, challenges him daily. Carr, too, trains with a group filled with NCAA cross country qualifiers, a few of whom will also be running at the NCAA West meet.
Even when they were running from behind, they knew they were catching up. All they needed was to finally have outdoor meets to make it fact.
“I knew I would be the back of the pack my freshman year, cleaning up everybody’s dirt because they’re dusting me in workouts,” Mitchel said. “I put in my work, did my time and I’m running toward the front, and it’s awesome just to have all of those guys around me doing the same thing. I think it shows how good of a program we have here at CSU.
“It’s just so nice having this team here, because we all have the same goals. Preliminaries, NCAAs, the expectation to make nationals as a team in cross country. Everybody working toward that common goal, I think that’s kind of what – I don’t want to say it makes it easier – but you hold each other accountable, definitely. The funny thing about classes, we were on a run the other day, every single graduating class among the five of us is going to regionals. I was like, man, that’s some range right there on this squad.”
All of the youngsters are learning each step of the way. All of them say qualifying gives them complete trust in the process and how the coaches approached training in a worldwide pandemic to have them ready.
Not just the training, but doing it having cross country, indoor and outdoor seasons running with nearly no break between them. There had to be adjustments for both sides. Now, they get to put it all to the test on a rather large stage.
What happens next, none of them really know. Bedard said if he talked to all eight of them separately after the meet, he’s 100 percent certain no two of them will come away with the exact same read on the meet and how they digested it all.
“I think it’s mostly excitement. This is really a celebration, just seeing how the whole process of this year unfolded,” Carr said. “Obviously I want to do as well as I possibly can at regionals. It would be amazing if somehow I ended up in Eugene after this, but really, it’s just a celebration of what happened with this season.”
One thing is for certain, they’re all excited to take this next step, even if it seems like they hopscotched a few paces along the way.
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