Both the Minot State University men's and women's cross country teams are young. There isn't anything Beavers head coach Stu Melby can do about that heading into today's Dakota Athletic Conference cross country championships.

But Melby is hoping his teams have grown up a bit this season and are ready for a breakout meet.

"It is definitely the goal," he said of moving up in the DAC rankings. "If everybody is 100 percent both physically and mentally focused, we could be up in the third slot on both sides. That would mean everyone running their best times and getting after it, but that is what we are looking for. That would show a real maturation of the group."

The Beavers and the rest of the DAC are scheduled to hit the course in Rapid City at 12:45 p.m. (Mountain Time).

While Melby hopes for big things today, he also understands just how young his teams are.

"We are certainly still building for the future. The men and the women are the youngest teams in the conference," he said. "On the women's side, we have one sophomore and four freshmen in the top seven. The men are all freshmen and sophomores. If you compare us to the other teams, all of them have one or two upperclassmen in their top two or three."

The Beavers are coming off solid runs at a big meet. The Beavers men's team was eight minutes faster at the Mount Marty Invitational in Yankton, S.D., Oct. 24, while the women were four minutes better than a year ago. But, the DAC as a whole is better as Melby figured the times the Beavers carry into the championship would be good enough for as high as second last year. As of today before the meet, MSU is penciled into the fifth spot on both sides.

"We are a lot better and a lot stronger than last year," he said. "We are young, but are getting better. The goal right now is to go out and do your best and if you do, that will get our best results. Last year, we would have been in second or third in the conference with our times, but you can see the conference has gotten better as a whole. I guess that comes with everyone being a year older."

It doesn't look like the conference will have to deal with adverse weather conditions like it did last year in Madison, S.D. The local forecast for Rapid City is in the mid 60s compared to near zero last year. Plus, the course doesn't have the snow and ice the teams had to traverse from last season.

"It will be a lot difference. I think it was around 5 degrees not counting the wind chill and there was a lot of ice," Melby said. "Hopefully this will be a little better for our fair weather runners. I don't think the weather is going to be a factor."

The conference champion earns an automatic bid to the NAIA national championships held Nov. 21 in Vancouver, Wash. Along with the team's runners, the top five individuals who are also in the top 15 in the conference earn bids. MSU has two runners who figure to be in that mix as freshman Breyette Schall for the women and sophomore Brandon Velasquez for the men are in the top 10 right now.

"Brandon is around eighth and Breyette is around fourth, so they both could figure in," Melby said. "There are seven at large bids for the men and five for the women so we are hoping the DAC can get two teams so we will have a better representation and will have more individuals qualify."

For both teams, finding a mini-race will be important. According to Melby, both teams strategy is to find someone from an opposing team who they feel is just ahead of them according to seeding times and beat them at the conference.

"The guys are basically the same as the girls, we are trying to see someone who we have run against that are close to them. If we can go out and hang with them and be competitive with them to make it like a mini-race, we should do well," Melby said. "We want to get the other colored jersey behind us."

Melby also singled out his two senior runners Amanda Towle and Devin Hiller. Both have run in the back of the pack this year, but both have brought excellent leadership to their respective youthful teams.

"Amanda is at the end of her four years and really wants to end the conference season well. She is pushing to go out with good results for both her and the team," Melby said. "Devin is the same way. He really is just trying out cross country, but has been a great personality on this team and is looking to go out with a strong race."