 Hello, welcome to the Dave Redan Show. I'm Greg Royce joined by Stevenson cross-country head coach Dave Redan and coach he didn't race this past weekend but obviously you got a week of training in. How did that go? You know to get another week without a race and just focus on your training. Yeah so it was another great week of training. I mean we set up our schedule thinking about that where we would be able to kind of back off a little bit for a race and then have a hard week the next week after and and last week I would say it was probably our last kind of really hard week this season. Now we got to start thinking about performing well at all those races coming up. Yeah and speaking of this race coming up, first the program you head out to California to Pomona-Pitzer to that invitation. A new experience for the team. Race a little bit of altitude facing some of the top teams from the West region racing against teams that obviously don't normally get the chance to race against. What's the team's mindset? Are they excited for this trip and are they ready to go? Yeah they're excited. I mean the big thing for us is to get out of the region and race some of those teams in the West region and we'll have the opportunity to race against a few of them and then just it's gonna be a great team bonding experience as well. I mean we go out Thursday afternoon and and come back really early on Monday so it's gonna be a fun trip. Yeah in terms of you know building the program and in terms of you know trying to get regional and national recognition. Do you think this helps to take the teams to the region of the country? Obviously the men's team has been regionally ranked this year and the starting performance price will open up some eyes on the national level. Yeah definitely I mean that's the plan and we're fortunate enough to be able to do that with with just just being able to go to a meet like that. So it's really exciting I mean like I said we get to compete against I think three or four of the top teams in the West region so if we go out there and do well it could definitely benefit us and our region later in the season. Yeah absolutely and really you know obviously we're looking there's only you know about two weeks you know race Saturday morning about two weeks out from the MAC championship. This is really the last big test before the MAC championship. How does that get you ready to you know race against top competition and that you know a living altitude? Yeah so again just another competitive race and just to get I mean just again I'm gonna have them all go out and actually I mean race hard. I mean it's been I think I told you early on in the season it was like oh we're gonna race three miles of this race we'll race two miles this race and now this is the second time that they really get to really push themselves and see what they're capable of and and just I mean workout wise the fitness is coming around for everybody it's really exciting to see the progress as for everybody as the season's been going. Yeah and then just heading into this final to where are you kind of looking for obviously to race hard the whole race but kind of where are you looking for you know time-wise I mean you know performance wise just to really you know build momentum going into the conference championship. Yeah so the big thing I mean I'm hoping a couple people step up and kind of surprise me a little bit but just for them to get used to especially on the men's side getting that two through five or six runners to finish closer together so I mean we want that gap to get down to less than 30 seconds like we're okay with Langston being far out ahead but then we need that two through five to be really tight together and the same thing with women like they'll have Kelly out there and we really need that same thing with the two through five on the women's side. Yeah because obviously you know the you know a lot of times especially the conference championship comes down to not who finished first or second but who has the best you know fifth, sixth, seventh place finishers. Exactly yeah that's how tight you get that group in. Yeah absolutely well coach we wish you the best of luck and safe travels have not the California this week and we'll talk to you at some point next week but for David Ann I'm Greg Royce this has been the David Ann show. Thanks.