Using a landslide of runners, the St. Olaf womenıs cross country team buried the other teams in a meet at Falcon Heights on Saturday, Oct. 21.

The race served as a tune-up for the team as they head into the MIAC Conference Championship race this weekend.

The team dished out a good old-fashioned butt-whooping, with their mass of 51 girls on the start line, and swarmed over the other teams as the gun went off. After the first mile, the Oles led the race in a pack with six of their runners, followed closely behind by other groups of Olaf girls. "We try to run in a pack for at least the first half of the race," said Megan Daymont, a sophomore runner who is currently the MIAC Athlete of the Week. They did exactly this, with the top six finishing within just over a minute of each other.

The first four girls on the team took second through fifth places: including junior Brigid Franey, senior Katie Milbrett, senior Anne Sateren and sophomore Daymont, respectively.

Also scoring for the team were first-year Marit Ground and junior Megan Call, finishing 14th and 16th overall.

The team has hammered out some solid races and were ranked as high as fourth in the nation. "Weıve had an outstanding year," said the teamıs coach, Chris Daymont. Earlier in the year, they finished second in the Midwest Pre-region meet, two points behind UW-Oshkosh, which is ranked third in the nation.

The Olaf runners have been tackling these races with their trademark tactic of running in packs. "The whole team runs in packs‹ each pack working together throughout the whole race," said Coach Daymont.

Pack running can be difficult for some teams to do, but for this team it has been devastatingly effective in races. "You have to be able to trust each other," Coach Daymont said.

Much of the teamıs strength lies in their depth, team size and toughness. The teamıs top runners have similar ability, so if someone isnıt having a great race, someone else is always there to step up and push the pace. "They are very tough," Coach Daymont commented. Their success as a team is due to the many training hours they have put in.

"Weıve been training together very hard since the end of August," said Coach Daymont. She is proud of the amount of talent and work ethic this team has demonstrated. "Theyıre a remarkable group of young women, and Iım proud to be their coach," she said.

Cross country racing is stressful, so the team does a lot of things to relax. So far this year they have had a hayride, they went to a corn maze, and this Friday they will have ŒDork Dayı and dress up in Halloween costumes. "This way we get to know each other better outside of running," said the sophomore Daymont.

The teamıs main focus lies on the MIAC Conference meet, where they will run all 51 of their runners to defend the conference title they won last year.

Coach Daymont hopes that the hard work theyıve put in will pay off in this race. "This is the icing on the cake," she said.

After conference, ten of the top runners will continue training with the team and go on to conquer the Central Region Meet in Waverly, Iowa. If they qualify for Nationals, they will head to Whitewater College in Washington the following weekend to test their power against the best runners of the best teams in the country.