The women’s cross country team will compete in the WIAC championship on Saturday.

“Our goal is to finish in the top three,” coach Tracy Yengo said. “I know we can do it.”

The coach also expects the individual runners to do well.

“There should be three runners in the top 20,” Yengo said.

The athletes think their chances are good as well.

“We’ll do fairly well,” sophomore Melissa Wright said.

If they do well in the WIAC championship, they will compete in the NCAA Midwest Regionals on Nov. 10. The NCAA Nationals will be held on Nov. 17.

The WIAC championship will be held at Whitetail Golf Course, near Colfax. That’s the Blugold’s home course.

“It gives us a lot of confidence,” Wright said. “It makes us run faster. Knowing every turn will help. We will be going at it pretty hard at home.”

The coach is pleased to have the race at home.

“We’re very excited to host,” Yengo said. “It’s a great psychological boost. It helps us run better.”

The team has changed its practice schedule to get ready for the postseason.

“We had a hard workout on Sunday,” Yengo said. “We had a moderate workout on Tuesday. We won’t taper until regionals.”

The team is confident in how it’s practicing.

“We will be ready to race,” Yengo said.

Wright is pleased with how the team has done this season.

“We’ve been doing great,” Wright said. “In our hard meets we pulled through.”

On Saturday they competed against UW-Stout and UW-La Crosse in Menomonie.

Four athletes, Mel Sass, Amy Turner, Heidi Hancock, and Shannon Parrish, competed for Eau Claire. Those runners won’t compete in the WIAC championship. That race was their last chance to compete this season.

There was no team score kept, as the race was a time trial.

The coach was relatively pleased with how the runners did.

“Stout has a tough course,” Yengo said. “None ran their season best. They ran well though. They weren’t far from their season best.”