For many athletes, the offseason or preseason is one of the most essential parts of the year. It is a time when one can make gains on others who have become lazy or have lost interest in training. At the beginning of summer, students at Rensselaer left for their respective homes away from Troy. For Rensselaer’s cross country runners, this ranged from as close as Colonie to as far away as Hawaii and everywhere in between.
As with every college sport, cross country has a fast turnover rate because of graduating seniors. Last fall, at the conclusion of regionals, held in Canton, N.Y., three of the men’s top seven runners left Rensselaer for the work force. Graduating almost half of the top seven often leaves a team and coach wondering what to expect in the ensuing months and upcoming season. This scenario was further complicated because RPI’s top two finishers from regionals last fall will not be returning because they are studying abroad. The guys’ team has its work cut out for it this season to prove it is still powerful in distance running. The women’s team only graduated one runner last year, but two varsity runners will not be returning for other reasons. These three losses are more substantial to the girl’s team because with few women runners to begin with, there is little depth. Two new freshmen and a junior recruit have given the girls a complete team.
Freshmen are not the only new faces on the team this season. Rensselaer has hired a new distance director, Andrew Weishaar, to give the team an extra edge. Weishaar is a native to the area, growing up in Clifton Park and running for national powerhouse Shenendehowa High School. This knowledge of local runners will help in recruiting freshmen for years to come. Weishaar’s credentials extend into college where he was a three-time national qualifier at Ithaca University. After graduating, Weishaar worked for Alfred University. This gave him good knowledge of Rensselaer’s division, the NYSCTC. Most recently, Weishaar worked with several world-class distance runners in the steeplechase at Northern Arizona University.
After hearing from the team via e-mail over the summer and working with them at practices recently the coach said, “I am very pleased with the team thus far—they have demonstrated great discipline this summer…We have an excellent group of incoming freshmen and transfers who will bolster an already established core of returners. There is a great deal of raw talent throughout the team, and I believe we will have some breakout performances this year from top to bottom.”
Running competitively week after week can take its toll on a runner mentally and physically, so it is important to race smart during the season and save energy for peaking at the end of the season. Weishaar’s knowledge of running and the sport was apparent when he stated, “My goal every year is to develop the existing talent within the team and to educate them on the many subtle intricacies of both training and racing. We will place our racing focus on only two races this year—States and Regionals—and I believe that we can finish top 10 at Regionals on both sides if we run smart”.
Competition for Rensselaer is usually quite fierce, and determining who will be the biggest threat is always a challenge. Much like Rensselaer, many of the other top teams in the area suffered graduation losses and coaching changes.
This Saturday the Red Hawks will compete in the Engineers’ Cup in Northampton, Mass. MIT and WPI are tough opponents, and will surely test the hard work that the Red Hawks have put in over the past few months.
