Emporia State’s Rossbach in Florida for NCAA Cross Country Championships
By Jesse Newell
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Jonel Rossbach’s trip to Florida will turn into an all-business venture today, as the Emporia State cross country runner tries to make her mark at the NCAA Division II National Championships in Pensacola.
“It will be a little bit less of a vacation,” Rossbach said, “but it will be nice nonetheless.”
The junior earned her place at the meet with a third-place showing in Regionals in Warrensburg, Mo., on Nov. 4.
“At the first of the year, I don’t think we necessarily set this goal,” ESU coach Dave Harris said. “As we progressed through the year, I think it got to be a direct goal of hers that has been fulfilled. Now we’ve got to set a new goal, and that goal is to be an All-American.”
To earn that honor, Rossbach will have to finish as one of the top 25 American runners.
There were seven other regionals nationwide, meaning Rossbach’s third-place showing would roughly put her in top 25 range. Consider also that she didn’t run her best race that day, getting out to quickly and losing to two girls she beat at the conference meet.
“For this race, I want to try to see if I can’t beat everybody in my region and kind of redeem myself,” Rossbach said. “I want to try to be top 15.”
Harris has already planned out a strategy for today’s race, which involves Rossbach holding back early.
“I’ve seen her be most successful when she really doesn’t start racing until halfway through the race,” Harris said. “I’ve got to get her to relax a little bit and not get too excited, because there’s going to be a certain number of people that are going to go out extremely fast, and I don’t want her going with those people.
“The goal is probably not to win this race; the goal is to finish in the top 25.”
Rossbach is the first ESU cross country runner to qualify for Nationals since Kadri Kelve in 2001. Kelve went on to be an All-American that year.
Rossbach’s jump to Nationals comes after a drastic improvement between her sophomore and junior seasons. Last season, she finished 17th at Regionals, barely missing out on the top 15, which would have given her an All-Region honor.
This year she finished third with a 22:03.20, putting herself comfortably in the top five to solidify her spot at Nationals.