VIDEO: Luke Greer Previews NCAA Cross Country National Championships

VIDEO: Rachel Strayer NCAA Cross Country National Championships

Sacramento, CA – Sophomore Rachel Strayer (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) will participate in the NCAA Cross Country National Championships in the Golden State for the first time in her career on Nov. 23. 

Strayer is the first individual female Carson-Newman runner to be selected to attend the National Championships since Aubrey Morris in 2008. The Eagles' women's side last attended the event as a team in 2005.

"It's really exciting, I know that I'm going to be surrounded by a lot of older girls and a lot of girls who have a lot more experience," Strayer said. "It's a little bit intimidating but I'm ready for the challenge and I'm excited to get that growth so early on in my career, that my view can be expanded as a young runner so that I can carry that in my junior and senior year." 

Acting coach Luke Greer, one of the most successful runners in program history who saw two trips to Nationals in his career in 2017 and 2018, knows what a tremendous experience lays ahead for Strayer.

"You know you are racing against the best people in the country," Greer said. "Going as a sophomore will be great for her and then hopefully, the next couple of years she'll be going each year and she can just learn each time from those experiences and take it all in."

Strayer, a member of the 2019 South Atlantic Conference first-team and last year's Freshman of the Year, was selected at large to participate thanks to a stellar campaign that saw her place as the top Eagles finisher for every event she ran this season.  

"I remember last December, Rachel finding out that it was in Saramento, California and her saying 'I'm going to be there'" Greer said. "Our goal this year was to stay predominantly injury-free and we did it. She missed Wingate but other than that she stayed injury-free and it shows how talented she is that she managed to get to Nationals now."

Strayer started the year off with a bang, crossing the finish line first overall at the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational back on Sept. 6.

Shen then placed third at the Louisville Invitational out of over 530 competitors with a time of 18:12.5 in the 5k on Oct. 5.

Her lowest finish of the year was still a very strong performance as she placed 33rd amongst over 540 runners at the Queens Royals Challenge on Oct. 11, the last regular season event of the year.

Strayer then secured the aforementioned First-Team All-SAC laurel by taking fifth place at the Conference Championships on Oct.26.

The moment was not too big for Strayer when she ran the 6k at the NCAA Southeast Regionals on Nov.9, capturing a sixth-place finish with a time of 22:20.6, all but securing her spot at the National Championships.

Strayer had to fight through adversity posed by injuries earlier in the season when she missed the Wingate Invitational on Sept.21.

"It was tough mid-season having an injury especially after a hard summer training," Strayer said. "… I've had this goal for a while now so that was a little disappointing, but I had to just keep my mind set on the end of the year and stay focused on my goal no matter what obstacles came in between me and that."

Now that she has conquered that hurdle, she will try to take advantage of the opportunity on such a big stage.

"In terms of strategy I would say it's not to go out too fast," Strayer said. "People tend to get jittery when it comes to nationals and everyone's excited but just keep a cool head and hopefully sit along for the ride and hope for the best."

"You have to be mentally tough in these times," Greer said. "You'll have a lot of people going off way too hard. She's going to have to be smart in the race and she's a smart runner so I'm not worried about that."

For Greer, it is also quite the accomplishment to have a runner qualify for nationals during his first year overseeing the team.

"He came in and filled the gap when we really needed it," Carson-Newman Track and Field Director David Needs said. "One of the things I look to see is if our athletes got better. That definitely happened under Luke's guidance this season."

Greer became the program's first All-American at the NCAA level in his senior season in 2018.

"He has been able to take what he learned in a legendary career as a student-athlete and apply those lessons as a coach to our current runners," Needs said.

The event can be streamed live for a fee on flotrack.org.