While many students will be heading home to spend their fall breaks to decompress after the first few weeks of the new semester, the Waynesburg University women’s cross country team will be in action on its first day of break.

The Yellow Jackets will head to Glassboro, New Jersey to partake in the Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle to race against some of the toughest competition possible in Division III, and head coach Chris Hardie is looking forward to seeing what the women can do in the relatively new race as the postseason nears.

“It’s become where if you seem to be in the rankings or you’re in the top five in your region, you go to see where you actually stack up against all these other schools,” said Hardie. “It’s definitely a new concept for us, we’ve never participated in anything like this. But we want to see where we’re stacked up, so it does give us a good barometer as to where we’re going to be as we head into the regional meet, and ultimately do we have a shot at Nationals, and how do we tweak the lineup at all.”

The Waynesburg women recently dropped to seventh in the Mideast region poll released Tuesday, Oct. 3, which Hardie believes is too low for what his team can do.

With the meet this upcoming weekend, the team will be able to make a statement to the rest of the region about where they belong in the regional, and even national, discussion.

Senior captain Angie Marchetti acknowledged that while moving up in the rankings is always a goal for the team, she doesn’t believe much of the team actively thinks about what the competition is going into each meet.

“I mean sure it might be in the back of our minds a little bit, but I definitely don’t think it’s our priority right now,” said Marchetti. “We do have that potential to do pretty good things, so I think the mentality of not worrying about it but knowing it’s just a reachable goal is important.”

One key reason why Hardie and also the girls on the team believe they are able to accomplish some lofty goals later in the year is thanks to a sometimes underappreciated coach on the staff – Michelle ‘Rocky’ Cross.

“She is the greatest coach I’ve ever worked with,” said Hardie. “Tactian? She’s solid, she’s good with pacing and what the workouts need to be to get them to a high level. Strategy? I don’t know if I’ve seen anybody better.”

Aside from being very talented at breaking down paces and strategies for races, Cross is a favorite amongst her runners due to her knack for working with them.

“What really sets [Cross] apart, and why I say she’s the best coach, is because of her personal interactions with her athletes,” said Hardie. “She is just great with interacting with a student-athlete and then figuring out how to get them to a higher level. I’ve never seen anybody better. And you don’t find that anymore either in college athletics.”