Nov. 19, 2010
COLLEGE STATION - Texas A&M's cross country tandem of Tara Upshaw and Natosha Rogers will represent the Aggie program in the women's 6,000-meter race on Monday, Nov. 22, at the NCAA Championships hosted by Indiana State on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course.
The dedicated cross country course has hosted the national meet seven consecutive years, usually amid blustery winds and very cold temperatures. The weather forecast for the Championship day this year, though, calls for a high of 63 while winds will be a bit gusty at 13 mph around the starting time of 11 a.m. (CT).
Coverage of the meet will be available live on the NCAA.com web site.
Both sophomore runners will be experiencing their first competition at the NCAA Championship level in cross country. They each earned All-Region honors for placing 10th and 11th at the South Central meet last weekend as did A&M's Kevin Burnett with his 15th-place finish in the men's race.
"I'm really just so happy to be there, not many people get this opportunity to compete at nationals," Upshaw noted. "I think I'm just going to embrace the opportunity and have fun out there. It will be cool getting an opportunity to run against some of the best runners out there."
While Upshaw knew she had qualified for the meet once the meet results were announced in Waco last Saturday, Rogers had to wait a day until the NCAA committee announced at-large selections for the NCAA field on Sunday. Rogers was awarded one of only two individual at-large selections handed out among competitors from nine different regions.
"I was so excited when I heard, I just jumped up and down," recalled Rogers. "Then I screamed and called my mom."
Rogers is hitting her stride again after an illness knocked her training back when the team was preparing for the Big 12 Championships. She was the No. 2 finisher among the Aggies during the first three races of the season then dipped down to the No. 7 runner for A&M at the Big 12 meet.
"When I got sick around three weeks ago, I thought great, now my season is over," said Rogers, who returned to her No. 2 position at the region meet. "I had no clue that this would end up happening and I would be racing in the national championship with Tara. Now I feel like I'm in tip-top shape."
With two runners going to the NCAA Championship, each plans to race with their teammate on the challenging course.
"When I found out Natosha made it I was so excited," Upshaw stated. "Coach (Dan) Waters always tells us to look for your teammates when you're racing, and if I had no one to look for, or run with, it would be weird.
"In the region meet Natosha and I ran together for quite a bit of the race, and I think it helped both of us because we just tried to move up together. Hopefully, we will do the same thing this race."
Rogers added: "Tara and I have talked about it a little bit. We're definitely going to stay together, because it's helpful to run with a teammate. We are also going to try to find other runners from our region as well and stick with people we know through most of the race. We're both so excited to be going."
Upshaw also has experiences handed down from an older sister, Brooke, who qualified for the national meet while running for Arkansas in 2007.
"She told me that this race is weird because no matter where you are on the course there will be tons of girls right around you," Tara said. "You just have to stay relaxed during the beginning of the race. Then the last 400 meters is a long, upward stretch to the finish line, so I have to try to pick off as many people as I can as I finish the race."