Chas Davis’ Creighton cross country teams have been training hard since they hosted the CU-UNO Invitational Labor Day weekend. White & Blue Review caught up with Davis for a quick Q&A ahead of this weekend’s trip to Lincoln for the 20th annual Woody Greeno-Nebraska Invitational.
WBR: Based on your goals for the program, what were your impressions of both squads’ races at the CU-UNO Invite?
Davis: The first and most overriding goal I had for this team early on was to establish a supportive, excited team atmosphere, where everyone is excited to get out and compete. We got exactly that. Times mean very little, especially this early on. We saw a lot of people race smart, moving up the whole way and competing on a course that didn’t lend itself to fast times. About half of those squads were freshmen, so for their first 8K and many of their first 5Ks, they ran beautifully.
Creighton Men’s Team at CU-UNO Invite
WBR: How did the last week and a half of practice go in preparation for Saturday’s meet in Lincoln?
Davis: We have increased the intensity and volume of our training significantly in the past two weeks since our first meet. The plan was always to allow our runners with high volume summers to get a breather at the start of the season while catching up some of the others because of a number of reasons. Now that everyone should be on roughly the same page, we’ve plowed ahead in all respects. The workouts have gone well and our runners are looking more at ease with faster paces and more challenging workouts. That’s what we want to see; not how absolutely fast they can run a given workout, but how comfortable they are doing it. The point isn’t to train hard and strain, but to run fast and in control.
Creighton Women’s Team at CU-UNO Invite
WBR: Will your full squads be competing this weekend? How eager to run are those who did not compete at Chili Greens?
Davis: They’re chomping at the bit and getting a little anxious…in a good way. They haven’t had a chance to really test where they are at this season, so this will be perfect timing in a setting capable of providing a reliable measuring stick. So far, most of our competition has been primarily inter-squad. That won’t be the case this Saturday.
All of those healthy enough to do so will be competing. So that means Molly Jergenson, Melissa Greig, Jared Dittman, Steve VanGampleare, and Casey Jergenson will be in there when they held out two weeks ago. Some of our runners are not fit enough to justify racing yet because of prior injury, most notably Chris Culhane.
WBR: Speaking of injuries, is your team relatively healthy right now?
Davis: About as healthy as you can expect a young team that primarily lives on campus to be. Many of them are dealing with some small congestion and sore throats, but we’ve been pretty careful so far trying not to redline them if they’re feeling anything, including some small muscle strains and aches at the moment. Some of our runners are suffering some illness and concerning pains that may end up holding a few out of the race. But by and large, we’re holding strong and they seem to be doing a great job of keeping the coaching staff in the loop on how they’re feeling so we can do our job better.
The most promising sign so far this week has been getting many of our banged up runners back into the normal running routine. They are healthy enough to begin training in the workouts with the rest of the team again. So far, it’s been about maintaining the careful balance you need, pushing them just hard enough that they are hungry to race, but not too burned to make it to the starting line. They’re ready.
WBR: What are you looking for from your runners this weekend?
Davis: I want to see some people taking some risks, getting hungry to beat people. So early in the season, it’s hard to say “we have to beat these people, or finish here.” There are so many unknowns with our squad and other squads at this point. If we see people “going for it” good things are going to happen. But I always stress: September is for training, October is for racing. This will be another chance to learn what’s going to work when it really counts for them. In this sport, there are no “W” and “L” columns. There is “how did you do at conference.”
It is also the last race we’ll use to determine our “top squad” that we’ll be taking to the Notre Dame Invite in early October. So there is an elevated sense of urgency to perform, while keeping things in perspective and realizing it’s still very early.
Come spend a sunny Saturday morning at Pioneer Park in Lincoln and watch Davis’ men’s and women’s squad compete at the largest cross country meet in Nebraska. The women run at 10:00 a.m., the men at 10:45 a.m.
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