RUSTON – Building depth will be a key for the Northwestern State cross country teams Saturday at the Louisiana Tech Mook 5 meet taking place at 8:30 a.m.
 
The men will be running their second straight four-mile race in the third meet of the season, and freshman Lorence Ballow said he'll be more prepared for the longer distance after running a three-mile course throughout high school.
 
"It's a lot different from running in high school, and that extra mile makes a big difference," said Ballow, who scored for the Demons this past week at Sam Houston State. "You pace yourself a little differently, and I think I started out a little too quickly, and I had a hard time pushing myself through the middle of the race."
 
The women, who will run their top athletes with five runners on the roster, will continue to build toward the conference championships, which take place Oct. 30 in Huntsville, Texas.
 
Sophomore Jacqueline Rushford has been NSU's top scorer in each of the first two meets. Rushford finished fourth in the Stephen F. Austin dual meet and 17^th overall in 42-runner field at Sam Houston State.
 
"These first two meets have been kind of tough because we're training very hard and training through until conference," Rushford said. "For me, I'm working on running faster in the middle of the race. That second mile is where I have my worst splits, so I'm working on keeping up my pace."
 
Coach Nathanial McReynolds said sophomore Erin Wrozek often challenges Rushford for NSU's top spot.
 
"They are very competitive with each other, and I expect them to race as hard as they can," McReynolds said. "We're working on consistency from our top runner through our fifth runner, and that comes with progression through our workouts."
The men, who nearly doubled their roster to 15 runners this season, will be searching for potential conference championship participants among their younger runners this weekend.
 
McReynolds said watching his runners adjust to their second four-mile race could identify those participants.
 
"We have an extremely young squad competing this week, and what I'm looking for from the first four-mile to the second four-mile is a steady pace all the way through," McReynolds said. "When they ran it the first time, in their head they thought it was a (3-mile).
 
"Now they know there is an extra mile, and so I want to see how they mentally prepare for this race."