Though both the Men’s and Women’s Seton Hill University (SHU) Cross Country teams have few upperclassmen on each team, they are showing their NCAA competition that age does not matter.
“We have had a strong season this year,” said Anna Cote, a sophomore.
Head coach Tim Creamer agrees, “I have been really happy with how the season has unfolded thus far, we are a young group on both sides that really put themselves on the map in the WVIAC,” he said.
By Jed Fetterman
Contributor
Though both the Men’s and Women’s Seton Hill University (SHU) Cross Country teams have few upperclassmen on each team, they are showing their NCAA competition that age does not matter.
“We have had a strong season this year,” said Anna Cote, a sophomore.
Head coach Tim Creamer agrees, “I have been really happy with how the season has unfolded thus far, we are a young group on both sides that really put themselves on the map in the WVIAC,” he said.
No doubt they have. Along with both the men and women winning the Griffin Classic’s team title, both teams finished third at the Saint Vincent Invitational and in the top five at the Davis and Elkins Forest Festival. The men finished third as a team, and the women finished fourth. Cote has dominated on the women’s side with three individual championships to compliment Lara Heinz, Diana Griffin, and Kyrsti Sowers, sophomores who have all finished in the top five. For the men, Mike Ortiz, a sophomore has two finishes in the top three, along with Jess Bradley, a junior who has one top two finishes along with two top 10 finishes.
What makes their success more surprising is the age of both teams. “The men have no seniors on the roster, and have been ranked in the WVIAC as high as second,” said Creamer.
“The women too are a young group, with only one junior and one senior in the top seven. They have been ranked as high as number two in the WVIAC polls this year as well.”
Lara Heinz, a sophomore, attributes some of the success to the training. “We are running at meets with tired legs and focusing more on racing people than running fast times,” said Heinz.
Still, Creamer values academics in his runners, as well. “Regionally and nationally our goals are to try and become Academic All American teams, receive all region individual awards and academic all region awards by competing well in November,” he said.
The ultimate goal though, is to win the conference championships at the end of October.
“The rest of the season will be very interesting for our you group, we have the opportunity to be one of the top teams at the WVIAC Championships on October 25th,” said Creamer, “A number of men and women have the opportunity to do very well at the conference championships and earn season ending awards.”
“A lot of our goals as a team relate to the end of the season, especially the WVIAC meet because, unlike other sports, our place in the conference comes down to just one race instead of a series of games or matches one-to-one with conference teams,” said Heinz.
“The focus on teamwork does not come without a price. “Personally, I would love to run a really fast 5K time but I know that will come later in the season,” said Heinz.
“Until then, I am focusing on motivating my teammates to run all together in a pack with me and to just keep working hard. It’s hard to keep training at this level when you aren’t going to see results until the end of the season.”
Creamer sees big things on the horizon if the runners trust the coaching.
“As long as they continue to work hard at practice and compete strong at each race we compete in, they will do very well and our season will be one of the best in SHU Cross Country history. We are… looking to begin a tradition of sending our men and women, individually or teams, to the national championships each year, something we have not had the opportunity to do in the past because of our status as a provisional member the previous two years.”
