Going the distance

PROVO — Ah, the postseason.

It's the magical time of year when all the victories, streaks and milestones become essentially meaningless, when anything less than one's best means the season is over, no matter what the polls and records say.

It holds true even for the BYU cross country teams, who after capping another strong season with a dominating performance at last week's Mountain West Conference Championship — the women won their 18th conference title in a row, the men won their eighth in nine years — now start the "other season" at the NCAA Mountain Regional this Saturday in Provo at the East Bay Golf Course.

The Cougars will be one of 18 teams seeking a bid to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 21 in Terre Haute, Ind. The top two teams from Saturday's meet will advance automatically, while other teams that place high and have done well at other meets this year will earn an at-large qualification.

The Cougars have had a strong year, but men's coach Ed Eyestone said BYU would likely need to finish in at least fourth in order to advance.

"What I expect is a controlled run that advances us to the national meet," he said. "That's what we want. We want to get through and position ourselves well to make the best run we can at nationals."

NCAA scheduling puts runners and coaches in a difficult position. The national championship is held just nine days after the regional qualifiers, giving runners a short window to recover and prepare for the most important meet of the year.

Eyestone said the scheduling requires teams to carefully plan how they will run in the regional qualifier. The goal, he said, is to run well enough to advance — but also save enough for a strong performance at nationals.

"That's where the fine-tuning comes in," Eyestone said. "You have to motivate but not overmotivate; calculate but not overcalculate."

Women's coach Patrick Shane said the scheduling challenge allows teams to find out how good they really are.

"The rubber meets the road in the next two weeks," Shane said. "We've come to the defining point of the season — we either advance or we don't at this point. We're going to find out how good of a team we are."

The biggest challenge for both teams at Saturday's meet will be Colorado, the defending national champions in men's and women's cross country. Shane said the Buffaloes are tough but beatable.