After winning its third Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) championship, the Waynesburg University women’s cross country team had this past weekend off.

With the weekend off, the Yellow Jackets prepared for the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional meet this coming Saturday.

The Yellow Jackets competed in this meet last season and finished seventh out of 49 teams.

Head coach Chris Hardie has similar expectations for the young team this year.

“This year is odd because of the 11 schools that are within 100 points of each other,” said Hardie. “We can find ourselves in sixth or seventh place if we run our best.”

Hardie has been preparing the team for this meet all year, including previously running on the course earlier in the season.

“I think already running on this course helps the runners,” said Hardie. “But we also have had a plan all year on how to approach the hills of the course.”

The course contains extensive gradual hills which can cause trouble for the Yellow Jackets athletes.

“This is not the best course for our team,” said Hardie. “We are mostly pace runners, and it is hard to get out of a pace that you have set going up or down a hill.”

Freshman Aubrey Wingeart will be one of the runners competing in the meet. Wingeart agrees with Hardie that the hills of the course having a potential to be a problem.

“The first mile of the course is all uphill,” said Wingeart. “You cannot start out too fast or it will hurt your performance.”

Hardie believes that the young team needs to go into the regional meet with the same mindset it had for the PAC championship.

“During PACs, the team had to push themselves to win,” said Hardie. “In order to get into the top 10, they will have to work hard like before.”

Wingeart hopes that her personal goals for the race will help the team finish in the top 10.

“I want to be able to beat my personal record,” said Wingeart. “In order to help the team, I have to run 30 seconds to a minute faster [than I did in the PAC championship meet].”

This could potentially be the Yellow Jackets last race as the team is attempting to grab a national bid, which will require at least a top-five finish.

“The top two teams automatically get into nationals,” said Hardie. “After that, you have to be in the top five to reach nationals.”

Even if the Yellow Jackets do not qualify for nationals as a team, individual runners can still qualify for the race.

“If the team doesn’t go, the women have to run in the top-25 to move on,” said Hardie.

If the team stays healthy for the race, Hardie believes that three Yellow Jackets can make it to nationals individually.

“[Senior] Teghan Simonton, [freshman] Gloria Reed and Wingeart all have the potential to make it to nationals,” said Hardie. “They will have to run the fastest they have ever done before, but they are all talented enough to do it.”

The Yellow Jackets will be represented by the top seven runners on the team. Hardie is undecided on who that will be at the time of this publication.

The meet will take place this Saturday, Nov. 10 in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.