By Brian Boyce
TERRE HAUTE — Janel Blancett posed in runner’s form before the billboard at Indiana 42 and Swalls Drive.
“I’ve had a pretty great year so far,” the Georgia State senior said Sunday afternoon as her coach, Chris Woods, took her picture in front of the cross country national championships billboard.
This afternoon’s Division I NCAA Cross Country Championship marks the Panthers’ first crack at the nationals. She earned her place in a regional hosted at the University of Alabama earlier this season. “I really want to become an All-American,” she said of the distinction offered today’s top 40. Any time faster than a 20:33 in the women’s 6K would also be great personally, she said, adding compliments to the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course. “It’s an awesome course.”
Meanwhile, back at the course, a couple West Coast runners prepared for the brewin’ storm of competition.
Shannon Murakami, a UCLA junior, is competing as the school’s first woman to individually qualify in six years. “Whatever it takes to get All-American,” the California native said of her goals for today, her own first trip to the nationals.
One of her teammates, senior Marco Anzures, was practicing his starts for the men’s 10K race. “Just to get called All-American, that would be awesome,” the three-time nationals qualifier said.
The green grass of the expansive course was tread on by just a few Sunday afternoon as preparations for today’s race came to a wrap. Indiana State University coach and meet director Geoff Wayton said that will change this morning.
“Hopefully right around 6,000,” he said of today’s projected attendance at a meet which will be televised live to 75 million households on the Versus Network.
Despite being scheduled on a relatively awkward Monday afternoon, Wayton hopes the excitement of America’s top runners coming to Terre Haute hits home for locals.
More than 800 runners from 64 Division I universities will compete, including past, present and future Olympians.
“Once people come out to an event like this, they’re hooked,” he said, recounting the first time he attended a championship-level crew competition. Relatively unfamiliar with rowing at the time, Wayton said excitement and intensity won the sport an instant fan.
And if somebody wants to watch a race, the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course is the place to do it.
“Nationwide, we’re known for cross country,” he said of Terre Haute’s reputation as “Cross Country Town USA.” The course, nestled off Indiana 42 and Tabertown Road, was designed to be spectator-friendly, he said, describing the intense synergy as runners pace the human wall of spectators stretching miles along the grassy plain.
Gates open at 9 a.m. with a start time of 12:08 p.m., he said. Tickets for the event are a whopping $5 “…for a national championship,” he said with affect.
On average, the thousands of visitors from across the country will drop about $100 each into the local market. “Cross country has a huge economic impact on the area,” he said, encouraging Hauteans to consider knocking off work for a long lunch to hang out with Olympic-caliber athletes. “It’s a short week anyway,” he chuckled.
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
