Men's team looks to rebuild, women work toward leaving legacy
Entering his second season at CMU, cross county director Willie Randolph looks to take this season one day at a time.
Randolph will take that approach into the 2010 season as the men’s and women’s cross country teams look to return to the top of Mid-American Conference.
“I am excited about this year,” Randolph said. “I’m hoping they have a good experience, but I’m ready to go to the next level mentally as a group.”
The women’s team returns seven seniors, including Melissa Darling and Sarah Squires, Squires missed all of last season with foot issues but is fully healthy entering the fall.
“It’s defiantly nerve racking, but exciting at the same time,” Squires said. “I’m anxious to get back out there with the girls.”
Darling earned first-team All-MAC honors while placing runner-up at the MAC Championships last year.
“You want her to win and take it one step at a time,” Randolph said. “We want her to compete and succeed.”
Senior distance runner Raeanne Lohner made a name for herself last spring when she was named Most Outstanding Track Performer after winning the 5000m and 10,000m at the MAC Indoor Track & Field Championships in February.
“It is just a different mindset going from track to cross country, so I’m hoping to improve on the mental aspect of cross country,” Lohner said.
Women look to build legacy, men’s side young
New to the women’s team is Krista Parks (East Kentwood H.S.), Lauren Halm (Williamston H.S.) and Amanda Slezsak (Freeland H.S.).
Parks and Halm come to CMU with impressive credentials. Both girls run the mile in 5:10 and the 5K in under 18:50 and earned All-State honors in both cross country and track and field. Halm was named to the Lansing State Journal Dream Team for cross country in 2009.
Assistant coach Matt Kaczor said the women’s team is beginning to build a legacy and currently have a good foundation for the future.
“How do they want to leave their legacy?,” Kaczor said. “They are a very talented group that has not lived up to it yet. They know what they want, now it’s what they’re going to do with it.”
The women have not won a conference title since 2000.
The men’s team, meanwhile, remains young with a roster made up of seven upperclassmen. Senior Sammy Kiprotich looks to pace the group after finishing seventh at the MAC Championships and 41st at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional.
“Sam gets out there and competes and enjoys running,” Randolph said. “The sky is the limit for him.”
A couple of key losses include first-team All-MAC honoree Riak Mabil and Jacob Korir, who was plagued by injuries last season.
The men finished third last year in the MAC, but have been without of a title since winning three consecutive championships from 2002-04.
Kaczor said he believes in the freshman the coaching staff brought in this year on the men’s side.
Freshman Isaac Cox was national champion in the 800-meter at East Kentwood High School while freshman Kyle Stacks won a state championship and two regional titles at Concord High School.
“We brought in guys that are accustoming to winning and can get us competing looking to win that title,” said Kaczor.
Both teams open the season with the 25th Jeff Drenth Memorial on Sept. 3 in Mount Pleasant.
