Montana State University
NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
Senior Swan Song
11/21/2013 2:00:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Cross Country
Demorest to cap off cross country career at NCAA Championship
As a freshman you have dreams, expectations of how you see your college career playing out. More times than not, those distant thoughts remain dreams and sometimes those expectations never transpire. There are a talented few, especially in the realm of college athletics, which get the good end of the deal, where all the logged miles, training sessions and patience pay off. Heather Demorest is one of the lucky ones.
Demorest leaves for Terra Haute, Ind. on Thursday to finalize her preparations for the 2013 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championship race on Saturday, Nov. 23, and marks the first Bobcat Woman to do so since the 2003 season.
"It goes beyond words to explain my excitement," said Demorest in near complete awe. "This has been my goal all season long but I really had no reason to believe I really could."
As a prep runner, she was the Montana Class B State Champion in cross country as a junior then dropped to third place her senior season. Notching three additional state titles in the mile and two mile, she had high expectations for her career at Montana State.
Each season of cross country has shown improvement, as she finished 45th overall at her first Big Sky Championship meet back in 2010 and then seemed to plateau at 16th both her sophomore and junior seasons, followed by mediocre finishes at the NCAA Mountain Regional meets.
Then came the roadblock. Her sophomore outdoor track season was plagued with injury and frustration. Yet, somehow, following her injury, she came back faster and considerably more dominant, earning comparison to Heather Haug, one of MSU's greatest female distance runners. Her 2013 outdoor season boasted her first individual All-Big Sky Conference after placing third in the 3,000 steeplechase, as well as her first appearance at the NCAA West Region Preliminary.
Her final season of cross country was set forth on the previous season's momentum, starting off with an individual win, the second of her career, at the Bozeman Running Company Invitational, followed by her second consecutive title at the Montana Invitational just two weeks later. After a 63rd place finish at the Pre-National Invitational, an incredible jump from 121st in 2012, she knew her goals might be coming to fruition.
At the Big Sky Championship, she stayed with the pack from the start of the race and never relented. Despite finishing six seconds behind Weber State's Summer Harper, a runner-up finish was still huge for the Darby, Mont. native. Her place was not only her first All-Big Sky cross country honors but also helped her team to a third place finish on their home course, their highest since 2004, coincidentally, the last time the meet took place in Bozeman.
"The biggest thing throughout this season has been setting goals," Demorest said. "I've put in a lot of hard work, not just this season but over my career. I now have this huge privilege in front of me and I just need to bring all that I have to Nationals."
With the potential for the NCAA Mountain Regional to be the season and career swan song for Demorest, deep down it was just too soon. She's been a part of one of the best MSU Women's Cross Country teams in recent history, not only helping with the Big Sky team finish, but also their first regional ranking since 2010, and eventually finishing seventh in the region.
While the team concept has always been more important to the Bobcats, there was much to be proud of in Demorest's individual efforts that day in Ogden, Utah. Like the Big Sky meet, she was able to stick with the front pack, kick into the highest gear and cruise to a seventh place finish in a field of 136 runners. Along the way to the finish line, she passed Harper, who had defeated her just a few weeks prior.
"It's a cumulative effect of her training over four years," said head coach Dale Kennedy, who will accompany Heather to the Hoosier State. "When she first got here, it was hard to tell if she'd even be able to compete at the Conference level, but here she is, now, at the national level. We all knew she had a chance to do it and she ran with that intent, as well."
The race is slated for Saturday, Nov. 23 at noon (EST), and will be available for online viewing HERE.
