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Northern Arizona Head XC Coach Eric Heins pre-meet - NCAA D1 XC Mountain RegionalPublished by
Eric Heins is in his seventh year as head cross country coach and fourth as the director of track operations for the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks. Including a two year stint as a graduate assistant from 2001 to 2003, he has led or helped lead the Lumberjack men to four fourth place finishes at the NCAA meet. His team is ranked second this year by USTFCCA and unfortunately second in the Mountain Region because #1 is held in both by Colorado. The Mountain Region Cross Country meet will be tough with the top two ranked teams and four of the top eleven battling for the two automatic spots. Eric Heins (EH) - We have set goals for each race and how to run the races. With each race, we have met our goals and run within our abilities. It has been a very successful season. Any surprises? Biggest surprise is having Andy Trouard running so well as a true freshman.
AS - The Race distance is moving to 10k do you feel your team is prepared?
EH - Although we have a good mix of Mid Distance oriented runners, I do feel training at 7000 feet prepares us for the 10k and our guys are excited about the extra 2000m.
AS - Tell me about how you feel coming into the Mountain Region Meet - you mentioned about coming into this meet you are more relaxed, tell about the difference between this year and last.
EH - Last years team on paper did not have a lot of wins over other ranked teams, so in order to guarantee a spot to the National Championships we needed to put ourselves in the top 2. This year we have done a great job of earning victories over other ranked teams outside of our region, so while our goal is still an automatic finish, we will work on packing up together for a majority of the race.
AS - Is the team healthy? EH - Knock on wood we are healthy and have 8 solid guys that we can count on over the next 10 days.
AS - Tell me what your team needs to do to have its best performance at the NCAA Championships - Is the Mountain Region a stepping stone to performing at your best at the NCAA championships?
EH - We returned our entire team from last years 4th place team and got even better with Josh Hardin and Andy Trouard replacing last years 6th and 7th runner, so our goal all along has been to run our best on November 23rd and give ourselves a shot at winning. What we need to do in order for that to happen is get there feeling fresh. Our workouts during the middle of the year have really prepared us for the Championship portion of the season. We will use the Mountain region as an opportunity for our guys to run together and help each other out.
AS - How do you integrate new runners so effectively and quickly. Shrader, last year's frosh Futsum, Matt, others. EH - We have a great history of cross country here at NAU – going back to the late ’80’s when the team took 2nd at the NCAA Championships. So really the biggest influence has been having positive role models around the team, David McNeill, Tim Freriks and Diego Estrada as of late have been able to encourage the newcomers and let them know how important the team aspect is. We also have a great training environment and surrounding area. If you can’t get excited to run in Flagstaff, AZ – then you are probably not going to get excited about running!
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