Iler, AU Women’s Cross Country Team Hoping to Turn Heads at National Cross Country Meet
November 17, 2004

By Paul Carmany, AU Sports Information

Once in a while, athletes seem to come out of nowhere and defy all expectations with their superb on-the-field performance. Such performances are said to figuratively make heads turn. As much as it may pain north central Ohio residents to admit it, Ben Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ rookie quarterback, is a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Eight Ashland University cross country athletes did some head-turning of their own Saturday, Nov. 6 at the NCAA Division II Great Lakes regional meet. The Eagle women’s team, which had finished fifth at the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) meet the previous week, surprised everyone but themselves with a third-place finish in Edwardsville, IL, and earned a trip to this Saturday’s national meet. Meanwhile, AU senior Nate Iler (Bucyrus, OH/Colonel Crawford), a two-time All-America as an 800/1500 specialist in track and field, displayed an impressive range, finishing fourth on the 10K course to advance to the national meet individually.

Iler will compete in the NCAA Division II national meet Saturday afternoon (Nov. 20) at 1 p.m. Eastern at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, IN. The AU women’s team of Mara Lee Albright (Norwalk, OH/Western Reserve), Jessica Fleming (Massillon, OH/Jackson), Miranda Forgac (Lakewood, OH/St. Joseph Academy), Lisa Nell (Ashland, OH), Kristin Ricketts (Lancaster, OH), Erin Stauffer (Ashland, OH) and Colleen Wurzer (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) will take on the same challenging course at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.

Women’s Outlook
Armed with a roster that contained several key returnees from a team that placed sixth at the 2003 regional meet, AU head coach Bill Gallagher, in his 24th season, believed that his 2004 women’s squad had the potential for a special season way back in July. He conveyed that belief to his team and urged them to seize the opportunity before them. Gallagher also scripted the team’s workout schedule to prepare it for its best race of the season on Nov. 6 at the regional meet.

Despite maintaining a heavy training volume throughout the season, Gallagher’s team displayed flashes of its potential. The Eagles scored a perfect 15 points in winning the Sept. 25 Wooster Invitational, finished seventh in the All-Ohio Championship meet (Oct. 7) and placed fifth at the GLIAC meet (Oct. 22).

AU’s defining performance, though, and the one that has them competing this weekend, was a third-place finish at the regional meet. The team’s training and race strategy paid off as the Eagles defeated two squads that had beaten them at the conference meet.

One thing that aided the Eagles’ successful finish was the fact that different runners have stepped to the forefront each week. Fleming, Stauffer and Wurzer have each finished first for AU in at least one meet this year. Meanwhile, Forgac has shown steady improvement, highlighted by a 20th place at the GLIAC meet and a 17th place regional finish.

Another factor that helped the Eagles at the regional race was the extremely hilly terrain they faced in Edwardsville, IL. Gallagher will be the first to admit that his team lacks the flat footspeed of some of its top rivals. However, a challenging course helps to accentuate his team’s training and level the playing field. Fortunately for the Eagles, Southern Indiana’s course is similar in difficulty to the regional course.

How should the national race shape up for AU with these factors taken into consideration?

“I would say that if we finish somewhere between 12th and 14th, that’d be a real good race,” Gallagher observed. “We need to be careful to run our race. We need to be very poised like we were at the regional meet.”

The national pollsters share Gallagher’s assessment, as AU enters the national meet ranked 14th.

One exciting fact for Gallagher is the fact that only Wurzer among his top seven runners is a senior. So, however Saturday’s results turn out, the Eagles will not be able to turn quite as many heads a year from now.

Men’s Outlook
Already a dominant force on the national scene as a middle-distance runner, Iler has translated that track and field success into cross country success this fall. The senior has lost to just four runners this year in five races and his honors include the GLIAC individual championship. It was that race that caused Gallagher to shift Iler’s training.

“After the conference meet, I thought he had a chance to qualify for the national meet as an individual if our team didn’t make it,” Gallagher observed.

Confident that Iler could finish in the top five at the regional meet even without fresh legs, Gallagher had him train hard for the two weeks immediately prior to the regional meet. Gallagher believed that this extra training would give Iler a better shot to finish as an All-American.

The strategy paid off at the regional meet as Iler was still able to finish fourth and earn a spot at the starting line for the national meet. Now, the question is how will it pay off this week at Southern Indiana’s undulating course.

The field Iler will see on Saturday will be the deepest and most talented he has seen all season, featuring a number of Kenyan athletes.

Gallagher says that, on paper, Iler should finish between 35th and 40th on Saturday. However, due to the two weeks of extra training he put in between the GLIAC meet and the regional meet, Gallagher says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he could crack into the top 25.”