Two of the smallest but most united teams on campus are the cross country teams. Both the men’s and women’s teams are very cohesive and have high expectations for this coming season.
This past year the women’s team lost five of their top seven to graduations. “Everyone is going to improve,” said team captain Rebecca Rosenberg-Beran, ’04. “Hopefully everyone will step up.” Some of the new runners to the team include Corey Atwell ’04, Kate Best ’06, Maggie Masella ’06, and Caitlyn McCullough ’06. All of the new runners are doing well. Continued improvement is expected from Clair Lears ’04, Emily Meacham ’05, Jessica Orsak ’04, Johanna Primmer ’04, Leah Underwood ’04, and Edith Werpachowski ’04. Leadership of this close-knit team is expected to shift to Rosenberg-Beran, Cara O’Toole ’04, and McCullough.
The major strength of the women’s team is their unity. Rosenberg-Beran remarked “We’re all really close and work together pretty well.” Over the summer the women’s team talked with each other at least once a week, motivating one another to keep up with their training. Also, there is an opportunity for people to emerge as key players on the women’s team. The strong players that left with graduation leave no shadows to hide the other runners. Everyone will have a chance to shine.
On the flip side of the coin is the men’s team, which only lost one of its top seven players to graduation. This does not mean, however, that the team is left with the experienced runners of the past. There is a “brand new mix of people on the men’s side,” said Coach Colin Tory. Travis Bashaw ’03, Kevin Belcher ’04, Doug Dukes ’04, John Evans ’06, Aaron Fitts ’05, Matt Haringa ’06, David Vona, and Keith Weiss ’04 are all expected to bring new depth to the team. Team captain Duane Crammond ’03, John Bonnet ’04, Mark Jensenius ’04, and Pete Warrington ’04 all made great improvements over the past year and are expected to keep it up. Robert Baniak ’05, and Joshua Scuster ’05 are both coming out of the summer with strong improvement. The team has “a lot of potential and can do really well,” according to Crammond.
“Depth is a major strength on the men’s team,” stated Tory. A lot of the runners are expected to be out in the front of the pack—instead of simply having a front runner, Tory thinks “we could have a front pack.” Two of the new runners formerly ran on the track team, and one of the team’s players red-shirted.
Overall, for both teams, there is a real “sense of team” said Tory. He considers this to be an improvement that will help the team perform better overall.
The team doesn’t currently have any late-season goals. “Cross country is a developmental sport,” said Tory. The key is to watch how the team does as the season progresses before any goals are really made.
The meets to watch are the Engineer’s Meet and the UCAA Championships, both occurring early in the season. These meets will determine where the teams expect to be later in the season. The women’s team is looking to beat St. Lawrence and Hamilton. The men’s team is looking to beat the second level group, where the team usually sits. The group includes RIT and Rochester. Additionally, if things go well, the team will look to beat the first level group, including Geneseo, St. Lawrence, Ithaca, and the College of New Jersey. For both teams, RIT and St. Lawrence are both good gauges of how the team is doing early on.
Last year the teams had very strong fan support from parents and friends. The fans rivaled those of St. Lawrence, which are notoriously known in cross country, much like RPI ice hockey fans. The teams are looking for that strong support to continue throughout this year as well.
The first meet will take place August 30 to September 2 in Lake Placid. The Engineers Cup will take place on September 12 at MIT and the UCAA Championship will take place at St. Lawrence on October 5.
