LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The seemingly endless four-year transition period to Division I has, in fact, come to its conclusion. The ability to compete in a postseason meet at the NCAA level is a cause for celebration for the Bellarmine University women's cross country team.

However, the NCAA Southeast Regional Championship is still two-and-a-half months away. The clock hasn't started ticking yet, per se, and the Knights know there's a lot in front of them before they toe the line in mid-November in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

"The group is definitely aware of and excited for the opportunity to compete at a Regional meet for the first time," coach Angela Hapner Musk said. "However, right now, I'm wanting them to stay focused on the day-to-day — get the most out of the current training, take full advantage of the early season races as gauges of fitness and opportunities to practice good racing habits, and I think they are doing just that."

Bellarmine has a significant amount of big-meet experience returning. Eight of the Knights' 10 competitors at the 2023 ASUN Championship are back. BU finished seventh of 12 and was only three points shy of finishing in the top half.

"Our team finish last year was about as expected," Musk said. "I believe we were very capable of beating one other team to be in the top 50 percent, but as a group, we didn't quite execute the late stage of the race like we needed to. There was a very challenging section of the course in the late-middle stage, and we had a couple folks who didn't quite get back where they needed to be after that."

Junior Sierra Oesterling paced Bellarmine by placing 26th at the ASUN Championship, and senior Trisha Sexton delivered a top-50 performance after placing 42nd. Seniors Taylor White, Hannah Ellis, Erin Luckett and Justice Pohlman-Singleton, junior Cassidy Gilbert and sophomore Molly Moore are also returners who competed in the conference meet.

Oesterling (10th), Pohlman-Singleton (11th), Sexton (13th) and White (17th) all rank in the top 20 of the program's 5k performance list. Additionally, Oesterling (ninth) and Pohlman-Singleton (15th) are among the top 15 on the 6k performance list. Oesterling owns four of the top-50 5k times and two of the top-50 6k times in program history, while Pohlman-Singleton occupies a spot on each list.

"I'm really wanting our returners, especially juniors and seniors, to take their roles as leaders seriously to set the tone for the freshmen and sophomores," Musk said. "We are here to have fun working hard together. The fun doesn't supersede the need for strong work ethic, and vice versa, and it all needs to be done with an eye toward making the whole group better. Last year, I felt we didn't work as cohesively as we had in past seasons, and I want to fix that this year."

Senior Madison Adkins, redshirt junior Ellerie Heinzmann and junior Sarah Jacob are returners, while the freshmen include Ginger Atzinger, Shaianne Overall and Katie Schweigardt.

Some of the established harriers are anticipated to continue to lead Bellarmine's pack. Musk is hoping to see plenty of competition for spots in the 5-10 range.

"As long as that competition stays focused on making the whole team better, raising the floor, I think that can be a very good thing," she said. 

Bellarmine will open the season Friday at the NKU Queen City Invite.

"When there is a shared attitude that can form into a group objective, in my experience, that can lead to some special outcomes and experiences for the team," Musk said. "It will be my job to remind them of their goal when the training gets heavy, weather is tough (like right now) or the race outcome isn't what we'd hoped for. At these times, when it doesn't naturally feel like fun, it will also be important to keep them engaged in the process of training and competing."

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