At this point last year, the Illinois men’s cross country team was less than stellar, to say the least.

“We were horrible last year,” head coach Wendel McRaven said. “This year, we’re going into the meet a little disappointed with our Big Ten Championships performance, but we’re still in much better shape than last year.”

This year, Illinois is a young team, heading into the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships with the majority of the squad made up of sophomore runners. Last year, these same runners were freshmen with little experience. This year, the experience they have gained is something that will greatly help the team’s performance.

“I didn’t really know what I was doing last year,” sophomore Colin Mickow said. “Aerobically, I have a lot more endurance than last year and mentally, I have a lot more confidence.”

The 10K Regional Championships will play host to 33 Division I cross country schools from the Midwest. Besides determining the top regional teams, the meet will also serve as the first round of the NCAA Championships. The top two teams and top four runners not on a qualifying team will receive automatic bids to the NCAA National Championships.

McRaven’s expectations for the team’s performance in the Regional Championships going into the season was a top-five finish. A top-five finish was also expected from his team in regard to the Big Ten Championships.

“All year, we haven’t really done our plan to run as a pack throughout the first couple of (kilometers),” Mickow said. “With the Big Tens, the problem was that the meet went out really fast, and we weren’t able to adjust. Regionals will be slower, which should help a lot.” Sophomore Nate Troester added other insight on how the Illini hope to run.

“We want to go out strong but not too long,” said, Troester, who finished first for the team last year. “We just have to keep moving with the packs. One of the characteristics of the team is that we close well. We’re going to try to get up there, establish our position and hold on to that.”

If the Orange and Blue are able to run their perfect race, a shot at the NCAA National Championships as a team could be a possibility for the first time since 1984. The Illini are ranked 37th in the nation and the top 31 teams go, so a top-five finish might be enough to make it.

“It would be huge if we could qualify for nationals,” Troester said. “All of our training, everything we’ve done since June leads us up to the meet.”

Ranked first in the field this weekend is Oklahoma State, the second-best team in the nation. The Cowboys were once in the position that the Illini are now. They then qualified for nationals, continued to improve their performance and now are a top team. McRaven is hoping that similar successes come for his team.

The Orange and Blue went downstate to watch the Illinois high school boys’ 3A state cross country meet this past weekend. Besides letting his team root for their high school alma maters, McRaven wanted to see kids he would be recruiting so his team could one day rival Oklahoma State.

“This is the group of guys (that will make nationals),” McRaven said. “Whether it’s this year or not, we’ll be there eventually. We aren’t feeling any pressure or anything, and we wouldn’t be disappointed, that’s just what we’re chasing.”