The Ohio women's cross country team is in denial.

No matter how many times the Bobcats are told, they refuse to accept the fact that they are the underdogs going into the NCAA Regional meet.

Ohio has already begun to prove the critics wrong. With their win at the Mid-American Conference championships Nov. 1, senior Kristen Diehm said teams are starting to take the Bobcats seriously.

"After our win at MACs, (Bowling Green) and Ball State know we're a contender," Diehm said.

Julie Kline said she thinks Ohio has a chance to beat Michigan, a team expected to finish no lower than second at the regional meet.

Kline will no doubt play a large role in her team's run at the Wolverines, but said her team has no No. 1 runner.

"We really don't have a strong front runner that will get way out there," she said.

Ohio lost their front runner before the season began when Jackie Conrad suffered a lower back injury that put her on the sidelines for the rest of the season.

Coach Elmore Banton said he is most concerned with how well his team will be able to keep up with some of the top programs in the country. He said the Bobcats have performed well to this point, but they'll have to turn it up a notch if they want to go to national meet.

"We're going to have to run harder than we did at the MAC meet," Banton said. "If we don't we might as well pack up the bus after the first mile."

Ohio has not had too much trouble stepping up their performance to each week's competition. They performed well at the William and Mary Invitational and Penn State Invitational where they competed with some of the toughest competition in the country.

Banton said he thinks these strong performances against teams like Florida and Notre Dame may help his team get an at-large bid to nationals.

The first two finishers at Saturday's meet get an automatic ticket to the NCAA National Championships. Other finishers may have a chance at an at-large bid that is based mostly on strength of schedule.

The Bobcats didn't make it to the national meet last year, and Banton said he doesn't want history to repeat itself.

"Last year we didn't run against as many tough teams and that hurt us when it came to the at-large bid," he said.