Men's Cross Country Training Hard for Upcoming Season
Note to media: For more information, contact David Loomis, assistant sports information director, at david.loomis@hastings.edu.
(Hastings, Nebraska) – As they get set to open their season next month, the men's cross country team has shown plenty of promise in early practice. Director of Cross Country Ryan Mahoney had high praise for the returners and newcomers as the team continues to ramp up for competition.
"We really return pretty much our whole men's team and added a couple of really talented freshmen. We did a fitness test time trial this morning and the top five looks really good, really promising. Those guys are just going to have to continue to grow, continue to learn to work together, both in practice and meets. The freshmen are just going to have to learn what college running is about and we're going to expect them to contribute right away," Mahoney said.
Senior Tatum Jelleberg had high praise for the teams' hard work so far and believes that they are in position to achieve some great things this year.
"Start of practices have actually been really nice. Leading up to our summer training a lot of our guys were putting in a ton of work and it showed yesterday and today, especially with our fitness test. Our top five I would say are going to do something insanely crazy compared to years past," Jelleberg said.
While the team only took 10th at the GPAC meet last year, Jelleberg pointed out that much of their team were not at their best due to illness. This season, he feels that the team is ready to take that next step to the top half of the conference.
"I definitely want to say we shoot for the roof. Last year was a bit of an unfortunate turn of events because at conference a lot of people were sick. When it comes to that conference meet, at least make that top half. We definitely have the firepower to do it, not with just our top five, but even our six and seven. We're all just trying to get super consistent and just get in that range, and hopefully - if we have the chance - have a few of us go to nationals as well," Jelleberg said.
The season gets underway on Friday, Sept. 6 at the Augustana Twilight meet. In preparation for the meet, Mahoney has stressed the importance of not having bad days.
"I think it's just going to be learning to be consistent in their training. We talk about you just can't have bad days. You can have a day where maybe you're a little off, but no bad days. (We) got to get something out of every practice session and be consistent in what we do so that when we get to races we can count on everybody," Mahoney said.
The race will take place on Friday, Sept. 6 in Sioux Falls, SD at 7pm.
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