FROSTBURG, Md. – The Frostburg State University men's and women's cross country teams come into 2013 hoping to improve upon last season, when they finished fifth and sixth at the Capital Athletic Conference Championships, respectively. Dale Luy, in his fourth year as head coach at FSU, believes that overall each team has the ability to be better than last year. "On both squads, we are incredibly young and inexperienced," said Luy. "The question is how much can we progress during the year." With a strong core of returners, and a large infusion of youth, coach Luy believes that both the men's and women's cross country teams have the potential for improvement.
On the men's side, Pat Mead will be the lone senior on the team and is coming off a junior season in which he earned Second Team All-CAC honors. Coach Luy believes that Mead will once again bear "strong consideration for being All-CAC." Mead finished in 15th place at the 2012 CAC Championships with a time of 28:36.54, and in doing so made a huge jump from his 67th place finish in 2011. Mead will look to make another big jump in his final season.
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Senior Pat Mead |
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Junior Jon Stewart |
Aside from Mead, the other top returners for the men's team are junior Jon Stewart, as well as sophomores Greg Horning, Jeremy Brown, and Daniel Repchenko. These four are all returning for only their second season, and after putting in a good summer of training will be looking to improve on their times from last season.
With eight returners, all in their second season other than Mead, as well as six freshmen Coach Luy knows there is going to be a lot of competition within the team. Luy stated, "After Pat Mead we will probably have another nine people who will take turns in where they place." Not only will the returners be fighting for those places, but the incoming freshmen class will look to make an immediate impact.
During their preseason camp, Brandon Redmond, Jeffrey Frost, Colin Quinn, Xavier Alvarez, and Stanton Higham have all stood out among the newcomers. Luy honestly believes that some of the newcomers could get ahead of the returners, but the biggest obstacle for them will be how quickly they can adapt to the 8k distance. One of the keys to the team's success, according to Luy, will be how well the returners can help the freshmen with their pace. Although talented, the newcomers have been going out very fast in camp, and will need to learn from the returners how to pace themselves over the longer distance in college.
The men's cross country team has a great mix of talented returners and freshmen with high potential, and they look poised to have a successful season.
The women's cross country team will also be looking to improve upon last season, as they earned a sixth place finish at the CAC Championships in 2012. Coach Luy will only have two returners from last season in junior Bryn Allston and sophomore Erika Watson. He will be without Gabbi Maher and his top CAC finisher from 2012 in Jen Bower, as Maher is studying abroad and Bower has been lost to injury. In her third year on the team, Allston will bring a veteran presence to the team and will be looked upon to fill the leadership void that is missing from last season. She finished in 61st place at the 2012 CAC Championships with a time of 29:19.07, and will be looking to improve on that time this season. Watson, going into her second season, finished 86th at last season's CACs with a time of 41:33.74, and is also looking to improve upon her finish from last season.
Despite only having the two returners, coach Luy is very excited about the team and believes they have an excellent chance to improve upon last season. He is confident that the incoming class of freshmen will be able to have an immediate impact, and will need to in order for the women to have a successful season.
Of Luy's top four runners, other than Allston, the other three are all running cross country for the first time. The freshmen trio of Casey Columbus, Lexi Foreman, and Valarie Proctor join Allston to make up what promises to be an exciting core for the women's team. "If we can keep them healthy, we will definitely improve over last year," said coach Luy.
Both the men's and women's teams will face stiff competition in the CAC, and that will only be made tougher with the addition of Christopher Newport to the conference. "As always, we have a very tough schedule," said Luy.
That tough schedule starts immediately as the Bobcat men's and women's teams open their schedule on September 6 at the Galen Piper XC Challenge at Shippensburg University. They will be facing a Shippensburg team that has been a top 25 Division II team over the last five years, as well as Elizabethtown and Kutztown, with all three teams historically being regionally and nationally ranked schools.
Even with the tough schedule and inexperience of his teams, coach Luy feels confident that both of his teams will be able to make strides and improve on their past performances.
