The St. Thomas women’s cross country team beat Carleton by 11 points last Saturday in Pella, Iowa to claim the NCAA central region title in a field of 24 teams.

Coach Joe Sweeney, who is in his 36th season at St. Thomas, expected a solid performance from his Tommies.

“Our test was just to race like we’ve been all season, use that momentum, let the chips fall and expect ourselves to mix it up with Carleton,” Sweeney said. “(It’s) really exciting because we haven’t won a region meet like this in a while, and I think we can call it a total team effort.”

The Tommies lost to the Knights in the MIAC championships earlier this year but got revenge on Saturday with the first-place finish. Sweeney and his Tommies will report to Winneconne, Wisconsin for the NCAA championships this weekend with hopes of building on their experience there from earlier in the season. The Tommies took ninth out of 46 teams at the Wisconsin-Oshkosh invite on Oct. 17.

“You get a little bit of a comfortable feeling knowing you’ve been there before, and not all the other teams have. And this is the big one, this is nationals, you leave it all on the course,” Sweeney said. “It’s the last meet, the last time for the seniors … the last time they wear the St. Thomas uniform.”

The opportunity to run in the big show has been extra sweet for senior captains Emily Gapinski and Megan Terukina, who will have their last chance to run Tommie cross country this weekend.

“We’re really excited. We’ve been training really hard starting in the beginning of the summer, and all of our hard work is going to pay off hopefully,” Gapinski said. ”Being a senior on this team and to motivate everyone especially at this level … has been great.”

Sweeney also appreciates what Gapinski and Terukina have brought to the program.

“They’ve been really good leaders the whole season, not just running hard in the races but also pushing the pace and being leaders in our practices and workouts,” Sweeney said. “They know this is their last shot, and they want to come through for the team.”

Terukina finished 19th in the MIAC championships this year, showing massive improvement from her 123rd-place finish her freshman year. Now, she’s ready to hit the gas pedal one last time for the purple and white.

“We’re all super excited. We don’t really know what to expect, but I know we’ll give it our all and just enjoy the experience because it will be a big deal,” Terukina said. “We all kind of feed off each other, and that’s what makes this team so great. We all want to motivate each other, and want to make each other better.”

The two seniors, along with the rest of the team, have the USTFCCCA Central Region Women’s Coach of the Year to guide them the rest of the way; Sweeney received the honor Wednesday.

“Everyone runs their best when it counts, race hard for each other and it will work out,” Sweeney said. “It’ll be a great day for St. Thomas and a great day for St. Thomas women’s (cross country).”

Jake Remes can be reached at reme7110@stthomas.edu.