Hoyas Set for Battle at Bull Run
By Mike Hume Hoya Staff Writer
On Sunday, the Georgetown’s women’s cross country team will take a trip to Bull Run, Va., to compete in the George Washington Invitational. In addition to host George Washington, the Hoyas will also face James Madison, who defeated Georgetown by four points last week at Penn State.
“JMU will present a challenge,” Head Coach Ron Helmer said. “Our girls are good, and some of our freshmen are very good.
“We went up against some pretty tough teams on their home courses early on in the year,” Helmer added, referring to Stanford and Brigham Young. “This is going to be more of a laid-back situation. We’re running pretty close to home, and there won’t be as much pressure as when we faced those previous top-ranked teams.”
Helmer said he also believed there would be some pressure placed on different runners in this race.
“We’re probably not going to run everyone,” he said. “Some of the juniors will most likely sit out, which will put some people into new roles where they will have to perform better to maintain the overall performance of the team.”
In spite of sitting out some of his more experienced runners, Helmer said he is unconcerned with the prospects of losing.
“Cross-country is unique in that the regular season has no bearing on the post-season,” Helmer said. “The sole deciding factor on our status regarding the National Championship is our performance in the regional championship [Nov. 13 at Lehigh University].
“Right now we simply want to race the best we can in the situation we are in. We want competing to be a natural and easy thing to do. We want to build confidence. You always want to go out and compete hard…if you win, great.”