TERRE HAUTE - With race day at the NCAA Cross Country Championships awaiting them on Monday, Nov. 21, the Texas A&M men will compete at the final collegiate meet of the season with a squad of seven runners for the eighth time in the history of the program.
Coverage of the national meet, hosted by Indiana State, will be free via a webcast on NCAA.com.
For the first time since 2008 and on the 50th anniversary of the first Aggie team to compete at the 1961 NCAA Championships, A&M enters the 74th annual meet ranked No. 22 in the country. Others years that featured an Aggie men's team were 1962, 1982, 1999, 2002, and 2003.
Meanwhile, Natosha Rogers makes her second appearance at the NCAA Championships as an individual qualifier for the A&M women. Rogers, a junior, led the Aggies to a sixth-place effort at the Big 12 Championships and a third-place performance in the South Central region meet when she placed 12th and fifth, respectively, in each contest.
"I'm very excited," Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven said. "It's a great opportunity. The guys have performed better each race of the season. Their progression during the fall has led to us being in the championship meet."
While Rogers will be the lone Aggie representing the women's team, she won't be alone in the large field of runners. Her older sister Alexa, a senior at Vanderbilt, will be competing in the meet as well. Vanderbilt enters the meet ranked No. 5 in the nation.
"For Natosha, she will have the opportunity to run with her sister in this race," noted McRaven. "Sometimes a sibling is even better than a teammate since they have trained together for so many years. With the level Natosha is currently at they could potentially run together during this race if they can find each other."
The men will race first at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course, running at 11 a.m. (CST) over a 10,000-meter distance. The women's race over 6,000 meters begins at noon.
Conditions on the LaVern Gibson course are usually cold and very windy. This weekend there is a forecast for rain on Sunday (50%) and Monday (30%) with a high expected of 59 degrees.
The Texas A&M men, who placed fourth at Big 12 and were runner-up at the South Central region meet, have been led all season by junior Henry Lelei, the 2010 NJCAA champion and 2009 NJCAA runner-up.
"I'm looking forward to this next race," said Lelei, who was named South Central men's Athlete of the Year after earning Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors. "It's going to be a great competition. I want to win it or at least finish in the top three.
"As a team we are ranked 22nd right now, but I think we can be among the top 15 teams. We defeated Arkansas at the region meet when they were ranked No. 15. Right now my plan is to help the team finish in the top 15."
Lelei will be the fourth NJCAA champion from Central Arizona to compete in the NCAA Championships over the past six years.
In 2009, Lelei was runner-up at the NJCAA meet in 24:21 over 8,000 meters, finishing behind Stephen Sambu of Rend Lake, who won in 24:00. In 2010, Lelei captured the junior college individual title in 23:29 and won by 25 seconds while Sambu finished in the runner-up position at the NCAA Championships, just four seconds behind the winning time of 29:22 set by Liberty's Samuel Chelenga on the 10,000-meter course.
After defeating four nationally ranked teams while placing seventh at the Notre Dame Invitational in late September, the Aggies were noticed nationally with a No. 27 ranking. Then seven more ranked teams were topped by A&M during a 14th place tie with Oregon at the Wisconsin Invitational. In the national poll prior to the conference meet, the Aggies moved from 27 to 24.
While hosting the Big 12 Championships at Pebble Creek Golf Course, Texas A&M placed fourth behind three other nationally ranked squads - two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma State (then ranked No. 1), Oklahoma (No. 5) and Texas (No. 11).
Those four teams were the only crews from the Big 12 to make the NCAA Championship field. Heading into the national meet, three of the Big 12 teams are now ranked in the top 10.
Oklahoma State is currently ranked No. 2 behind Wisconsin and leads the Big 12 contingent, with Oklahoma No. 4 and Texas at No. 9. After earning an automatic qualifying berth to the NCAA meet as the South Central runner-up, defeating No. 15 Arkansas in the process, the Aggies were ranked No. 22 nationally.
In bettering so many ranked teams during the season, Texas A&M ended up topping nine other teams who have qualified for the 31-team NCAA Championship field along with nine squads which claimed conference team titles this season.
With Lelei a threat to either win a race or place among the top five, the Aggies have developed a strong base of runners in support. Often a trio of A&M runners will finish close together, which assists their team score tremendously.
"Going to the meet in Wisconsin, with 40 teams lining up at the starting line, helped prepare us for the mass of bodies we will see at the NCAA Championship meet with 31 teams along with the individual qualifiers," said McRaven. "The key is to stay calm and keep racing in a field this size. If you can run with your teammate, I think that makes it easier since there is a comfort level there.
"It will be important for them to find each other out there and try to continue that dynamic of running together. During the region meet we still had our 2 through 7 relatively close together at the halfway point. Then in the second half of the race our 2-3-4 guys were together as were our 5-6-7 guys. I think that naturally occurs with our group of runners."
Senior Kevin Burnett, who was a member of Texas A&M's 2008 team that placed 30th at the national meet, has been the second finisher for the Aggies this season during 8,000-meter races. During the region meet, though, it was junior MacLean O'Donnell who claimed the second position while James Hodges, a senior, finished third among the group as the distance increased to 10,000-meters.
"The thing I'm looking forward to the most is proving our ranking," O'Donnell said. "I feel like we are under ranked, because a few of the teams we have beaten are ranked ahead of us. I want us to show what we are capable of. It'll be exciting to race in this atmosphere of a championship event."
Hodges added: "It's awesome to finally qualify for the national meet. I've been waiting for this since the last Aggie team went my freshman year in 2008. It's something you dream about and finally we are there. The best advice they gave us was to keep your cool, don't make the race any more than it's suppose to be.
"Racing over 10k at the region and national meet is more my distance. I've put in a whole lot of mileage and consider myself a very long distance runner. The longer the race, the better it is for me."
Junior Stephen Curry has finished fifth for the Aggies consistently with Isaac Spencer, a freshman, and C.J. Brown, a junior, pushing for top five positions along with senior Will Barry, who was an alternate during the region meet.
"Basically, this is a benchmark for the entire team," state Curry. "We have a new squad under a new coach, so this is the time when we set the bar for ourselves and for other teams trying to take us down. We are starting to be a force in the distance community now. This is the time to put a notch in the stick and see if we can jump higher."
Spencer noted: "I'm just really excited and trying to contribute whatever I can to the team. I'm learning the ropes as I go. It's a little new to me, but I'm trying to learn from the upperclassmen. Racing over 8,000 meters I had to mentally prepare myself for a couple of days. Now, with the race distance 10k, I have to mentally prepare again and stay focused while trying to catch whoever is ahead of me."
This season has revitalized Brown after a couple of sluggish seasons with the Aggies. He opened the season with a win at the Baylor Twilight over 4,000 meters and had solid performances over the longer 8,000-meter distances.
"It's kind of getting back to normal for me," said Brown. "I haven't run well the past two years, so for me it's been important to have individual success as well as team success. Under Coach McRaven and his philosophy we have gained momentum throughout the season.
"Going into nationals I feel we are going to have a big race and bust out and let others know what Texas A&M is all about."
Rogers, meanwhile, hopes her experience in last year's national meet will aid her this time around. A time of 21:53.1 placed Rogers 164th amid a field of 253 finishers.
"I look forward to knowing exactly how the race works at the national meet," Rogers stated. "Last year I had no idea it was going to be like a herd of buffalo. You didn't have hardly any space to yourself. I have a strategy in my head and I definitely want to improve from last year.
"I'm really looking forward to finding my sister out there, if I can, in the pack. Basically, I'm just going to focus on myself and listen to my body while trying to do the best that I can."
After each sister ran their respective region races last weekend they soon found out both had qualified for the NCAA Championships.
"We called each other immediately," Alexa said. "She is my best friend and we were both so excited to find out that we were going to run my last college race together.
"My sister and I have always done everything together. There has never been rivalry between us. The day we started to compete against one another we made a pact that no matter who crossed the line first our relationship would never change. We wanted to push each other and never hold back. A race isn't truly a race if someone holds back."