Hutchinson CC Sports Information

If one were to have wanted to speak to Hutchinson Community College freshman women's cross country runner Louise Cocking shortly after her performance at the Region VI Championships two weeks ago, that may not have been a good idea.

"I was very disappointed at regionals to be honest," said Cocking after a surprising 10th-place finish in the Region VI Championships in El Dorado. "I went out way too fast then. I won't do that on Saturday."

Her chance at redemption will come at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa, for the 2020 NJCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.

Blue Dragon head coach Justin Riggs analyzed Cocking's regional performance and deduced that the freshman might have gone out too fast because emotionally, her engine – to use a motorsports term –

might have been in overdrive before the biggest race of the season to that point.

"I think she was over-excited at regionals," Riggs said. "When you are over-excited like that, it's not always a good thing."

Cocking was Hutchinson's top finisher in each of the four races preceding regionals. She was the Red Devils Relay runner-up and her fourth-place time of 19:09.3 at Nebraska-Kearney was the third-fastest 5,000-meter time in Hutchinson women's history.

At Region VI, through the first 4,000 meters, Cocking was in her usual position as Hutchinson's lead runner and right with the lead pack. Over the last 1,000 meters, Cocking's high-revving engine started to misfire and she fell back to 10th, still running a respectable time of 20:01.99.

"I was very nervous before that race. Probably too nervous," Cocking said.

Riggs said the key to running at nationals is keeping emotions in check.

"Controlling your emotions is huge in big races," Riggs said. "It's not an easy thing to do, so you try to keep your emotions in check as much as you can and you have to be ready for anything."

The Blue Dragons will go into Saturday's championship ranked seventh in the national ranked No. 7. Two other Region VI teams are ranked ahead of the Blue Dragons – Cloud County is No. 2 and Colby is No. 3.

Hutchinson finished fourth in the Region VI Championships two weeks ago and have not finished lower than fourth in any race this season.

While Cocking looks for redemption on Saturday, sophomore Sheila Too would like to, at minimum, replicate her regional performance. Too placed seventh in the Region VI Championships with a personal record-time of 19:26.93, the 12th-fastest 5K time in Blue Dragon history.

While Cocking and Too have been the Nos. 1 and 2 runners all season, the key to the Blue Dragons staying in the national Top 10 have been the performance of the Nos. 3 through 6 runners this season.

Sophomore Megan Miller has posted a season-best 5K time of 21:23.6 at Nebraska-Kearney. Freshman Izzy Wheeler has a season-low 5K time of 21:19.96 at the Red Devil Relays. Freshman Noel Hidalgo ran 21:58.7 at UNK. Freshman Jurney Yung comes off a PR at Region VI with a time of 22:18.52. Freshman Jeannie George, added to the roster in October, ran 27:23.34 at Region VI.

"I have been happy with the contributions of all the girls," Riggs said. "Louise being an international recruit, you can't see them run until they get here. I've been really happy with her performances and abilities this year. Izzy has been a surprise with the times she was running in high school to times she ran this year. She is running 2 minutes faster than high school, so you have to be happy for that.

"All the girls have run well. We aren't deep, but everybody has been doing their part."

The Blue Dragon women have had three-straight Top 20 finishes in the past three national championships. They bid for their first Top 10 finish since 2004.