Cross-country preparing to race well in 2011 season
The Utah State cross-country team is back on the trail for their first meet of the season this week as they host the Utah State Open, this Saturday at the American West Heritage Center in Wellsville, Utah.
The Aggies have four meets this season, the one this week in Logan, the Montana State Open in Bozeman, Montana, the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, and the Wisconsin Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin.
For this weekend’s meet, the Aggies are hosting Weber State University for the men’s competition and BYU, Weber State and the U of U for the women’s race.
The Aggie men will take on a 7K course, while the Aggie women will run a 5K.
“The home meet is always a nice time for them to run in front of family and friends,” head coach Greg Gensel said.
The men’s cross-country team is looking to rebound after a disappointing finish in the Western Athletic Conference Championship Meet last year. Before 2010, the Aggie runners won five WAC championships in a row, beginning in 2006.
This season they are returning two seniors including Brian McKenna who was named WAC Male Cross-Country in 2009 Athlete of the year and Daniel Howell who was named to first team all-WAC in 2010. The Aggies also return junior Aaron Clements, who was named to the second team all-WAC.
McKenna finished second in the WAC Championships last year. The senior has a storied career, including a first place WAC championship finish in 2009. McKenna is the male cross-country runner to watch for in the 2011 season.
Howell is also looking to have a strong season this year. The senior finished 2nd in the 2009 WAC championships. He fell to fifth place in 2010, but that placement doesn’t tell the story of his 2010 season. As a junior Howell earned academic all-WAC honors and cross-country all region honors.
Howell said he is looking to the 2011 season as a chance to improve.
“I feel like I’m coming into it pretty good,” Howell said. “We still have to work on some things and get some speed behind us.”
The only returning senior on the women’s side is Kim Quinn, but they also return junior Ruth Hilton who earned first team all-WAC honors, as well as sophomore Kaylee Campbell who earned second team all-WAC honors in her freshman year.
The Aggie women finished second in the WAC championships in 2010, and have first place finishes in 2006 and 2008.
“We don’t know how it’s going to look so far,” Hilton said. “We have a few freshmen who are question marks right now and I hope we can turn them into exclamation points.”
Hilton finished fifth at the WAC championships in 2010, and is definitely the runner to watch on the women’s team.
“I have high expectations for our girls,” Hilton said. “We’d like to do as well as we can and hopefully bring home a WAC championship at the end of the year.”
Campbell started off her Utah State career with a second team all-WAC honors and finished 13th at the WAC Championships. Expect Campbell to improve on last year’s finish.
Aggie cross-country needs improvement. They have only held eight formal practices this season, so getting into a groove has been tough, Howell said.
“It’s a little hard,” Howell said. “But it’s good. It lets you see what you still need to do, and what you still need to work on.”
Despite the limited practice time, the Aggies feel ready for the season. Gensel said he is looking at the first meet as a starting point to make improvements.
“Because it’s the first meet, it’s really just a test to see where things are at, and look at what we need to do to make them,” Gensel said.
Gensel said because of the short preseason, it has been difficult to gauge his expectations of the team. He doesn’t expect to see a Personal Record out of his athletes in every meet, but said he is excited to watch his team grow as the season unfolds.
“Each week, each practice, each meet we go to, we want to improve on what we’ve done,” Gensel said.
— meredith.kinnney@aggiemail.usu.edu