While many athletic events see the finishing order change around from event to event, most competitions don’t see rookies finish ahead of top athletes.

That’s what happened at Pre-Nationals on Oct. 16 for the men’s cross country team. Matt Flaherty, a redshirt freshman, had the third-fastest time in the open race.

Flaherty also had the third-fastest time for Illinois.

Before Pre-Nationals, a time trial was run during practice to determine who would run in the race. Flaherty was not in the top seven, so he did not run in the competition, but he proved he belonged with his run in the open race.

Although he never ran an 8,000-meter race at the collegiate level before, Flaherty was not surprised with the results.

“I knew I had a good shot,” said Flaherty. “I had a big advantage running in the front of the pack most of the way.”

Because of his performance, head coach Paul Pilkington decided to run him at the Big Ten Conference Championship this Sunday in Iowa. That will be his first big test.

“Pre-Nationals was his first opportunity,” Pilkington said. “He improved enough to be among the top five to seven runners. We’ll see Sunday if he belongs up there.”

The team can have a total of nine runners compete at the Big Ten Championship, but the roster must be narrowed down to seven for NCAA regionals, the next big meet. Flaherty must be in the top seven on the team to run at regionals.

Flaherty thinks the team has a good chance to place at the meet.

“If we can get six or seven guys under 25 (minutes), we’ll have a good chance to place,” Flaherty said. “I definitely think we can do that.”

Flaherty has set goals for himself for the race, but puts the team first.

“I would like to be able to run as fast as possible,” Flaherty said. “Our main focus, though, is to make it to nationals. If we run as well as we can, we can make it.”

Pilkington thinks Flaherty sent the third, fourth and fifth runners a message with his time at Pre-Nationals.

“They know if they want to continue their year and run at regionals, they have to step it up,” Pilkington said.

Regionals is scheduled for Nov. 13, two weeks after the Big Ten Championship.