Aggie men welcome role as Big West favorites
There are high expectations for the Utah State University cross country teams going into the season.
After finishing second in the Big West Conference last year, the men’s team is favored to win the conference title this year, beating out California Polytechnic State University in the Big West Coaches’ poll.
Last season the Aggies were ranked as high as No. 21 nationally and are returning four of their top five runners from last year’s team.
USU Head Coach Gregg Gensel said being chosen to win the conference does not add any additional expectations above what the team has for themselves, though.
“We already had the expectations,” he said. “We’re returning four of our top five and that makes us feel like we’re a good team.”
Although Aggie Brick Bergeson graduated, Gensel said the new runners on the team should be able to fill the hole.
“We feel like we recruited well enough to have that one person replaced by three other people that were just as good as the person we lost,” Gensel said.
Senior Aggie runner Mitch Zundel said, “We have such a depth full of quality guys.”
Given the strength of this year’s team, Gensel said the men’s team has the potential to win the conference and if pressure exists, it is self-induced.
Zundel said, “We have such a good team there shouldn’t be any pressure, I think. I don’t see anyone stopping us. There’s no reason why we won’t do much better than we did last year.”
One the women’s side, the Aggies were picked by the Big West coaches to finish fourth in the conference, the same place in which they finished a year ago.
“The women were picked to finish fourth because that is what we finished last year, but they [the coaches] don’t know how we recruited,” Gensel said.
Senior runner Melanie (McClellan) Marek said, “We have a lot of potential this year. We have a lot of new girls that came in that are looking strong and we have a lot of our returning athletes that are looking good, too. With that combination we’re going to do really well this year, I feel.”
Both Aggie teams were picked to finish high in a conference Gensel said has good strength.
“On the men’s side Cal Poly is much improved and [the University of California,] Santa Barbara is not going to be a slouch,” he said. “They’re [UCSB] the defending conference champions and until somebody beats them they’re still the defending conference champions. Our kids have great respect for those two teams and the others in the conference as well.”
Gensel said the women’s side is strong as well with Cal Poly, UCSB, and the University of California, Irvine being the favorites, but with the Aggies close behind.
“I hope we can surprise them,” Marek said. “I feel like we can. We’re all just really optimistic and look forward to a good season.”
Gensel said, “You can’t just earn the title by some coaches’ poll,” he said. “I don’t put much credence in the poll because it’s someone’s opinion. Everyone knows that in track and field, and sports in general, it’s what happens on the field of play that determines the champions, and that’s where we intend to prove it.”
The Aggies have their first chance to prove themselves when they open their season Saturday at the Idaho State Invitational, and although it is the first meet, the runners said they don’t feel much pressure.
“There are some nerves, I guess, but just so we feel like we’ve done what we wanted to do,” Zundel said. “But at the same time it’s not a big meet.”
Marek said, “You know everybody else is still not at their peak speeds because they’re just starting to [peak].”
Gensel said he didn’t put pressure on his teams for the meet and it is a chance gain some experience running against competition and being timed.
“I told my teams this [meet] was just to find out where they’re at,” Gensel said. “We’ll find out where everybody is at, what they’ve been doing over the summer, how good of shape they’re in and that kind of stuff. The outside competition will be nice.”
The Aggie men won the ISU Invitational last season, with the women finishing in fourth place.
Following its meet Saturday, USU will return to action Sept. 21 at the UC Riverside Invitational.
– SLBK5@cc.usu.edu