When a coach goes to the drawing board at the beginning of the season to figure out what a team’s goals will be, one of the goals is usually going to be winning their conference title.

This is very much the story of this season’s Bowling Green cross country team.

And while this weekend’s Pack-It-Up Illini Challenge in Urbana Illinois is not the Mid-American Conference championships, the meet will still be an important stepping stone for the Falcons to achieve their goals in the MAC meet just one week later.

“This is a good quality meet with several very competitive teams and individuals,” coach Cami Wells said. “This is an excellent opportunity for us to race against good competition and prepare ourselves for the MAC meet.”

But both the men’s and women’s teams will have to give a top notch effort to reach their final goals.

The women’s main focus will be to keep their front runners closer together.

“I expect the women to have a much closer pack one to five than last week,” Wells said. “They have prepared themselves well in practice and they are ready for Saturday.”

Wells is the first to admit the importance that a good showing in this race holds and what kind of implications it could have on the MAC meet.

“[The women] have been racing good all season, but we have yet to race really well,” Wells said. “This is our opportunity to race really well against good competition and truly show what we are capable of as we head into the MAC meet.”

The men, on the other hand, have had a rocky road leading into this weekend’s meet.

“The men have to regroup and refocus after last week,” Wells said. “It is important for them to race as a team and really get the most out of themselves this weekend.”

On top of getting the most out of themselves, both teams will have to prove themselves to be worthy of their newly acquired 15th ranking in their region, a number that gives credibility to the team’s efforts this season.

The team will now be a little more picky and great effort this weekend will be necessary for all of the runners to be able to throw their hats in at the MAC meet.

“We are allowed nine runners per team at [the MAC meet],” Wells said. “But I will only take those that are racing well and ready to run.”

This meet will indeed be the most important of the Falcons’ season as they head into their MAC championship meet.