Striding up to the start, cross-country runners are preparing to race in the hometown of the Kentucky Derby.

Louisville will host the NCAA National Cross-Country Championships at “Tom” Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky Saturday. The men’s team from Washington State will join be in the field, and for many of the Cougars, this will be their first nationals race.

“It’s definitely the biggest competition, like the most competitive race I’ve ever been in in my life,” freshman Chandler Teigen said, “I mean, NCAA championship; nothing can really compare to that thus far so that’s exciting.”

The last time the Cougar harriers were at Nationals as a team was in 2011 under a different head coach. Only in his second year, WSU Director of Track and Field and Cross-Country Wayne Phipps progressed the team with his down-to-earth demeanor and individualized training. He set a goal with his team and is seeing it come to fruition.

“Our number one goal, even with this young team, was to make it to nationals as a team, and so making that happen is obviously a big excitement,” junior captain John Whelan said.

Based on the performance of the men at West Regionals Saturday, there are high expectations for the team to again compete with a high level of intensity. Whelan was a runner-up with his sophomore teammate Michael Williams coming down the home stretch and placing third in the talented Pac-12 conference. The rest of the varsity team finished to place fourth overall in the West Region.

Whelan, Williams and sophomore Sam Levora will be the upperclassmen running for the Cougs. Freshmen racing with Teigen on the “Squad of Seven” are Nathan Wadhwani, Nathan Tadesse and Jake Finney. Besides these runners, the coaches and an athletic trainer, freshman and alternate Paul Ryan is also coming on this five day trip to support his team.

Besides having support, knowing the course is half the battle. Luckily, the Cougars raced on this course for Pre-Nationals in October, and should remember the tricky parts to watch out for.

“Every race that we’ve raced a second time on the same course has gone that much better and we perform well the first time, so there’s no reason that we are not going to perform even better this time,” Phipps said.

After flying in Wednesday, enjoying a banquet at Churchill Downs today, and warming up at “Tom” Sawyer Park on Friday, race day is set for Saturday.

“I remember we did like a warmup stride down the finishing stretch,” Teigen said of Pre-Nationals warmup. “Those kind of things give you goosebumps before the race thinking ‘This is what the race is going to be like for Pre-Nats, and then if we make it to Nationals, it’s going to be even more exciting.’”

The Cougars’ race will begin at 1 p.m. EST for the men’s 10 kilometer championship.

A link for live stats can be found on wsucougars.com.