After a second to last finish at the Sundodger Invite, September 17, the cross country team will head to the Willamette Invite in Salem tomorrow with high hopes for a much better performance.

“The strategy in the past couple weeks was to train hard and test them to see how they would respond this weekend,” said head coach Matt Hart.

Sophomore Aaron Hensley is specifically looking to lower his time of 28:30 from the Sundodger Invite. “I hope we all improve on our times from last time,” he said.

The positive situation at the Sundodger was Alex Dominguez-Morales, who finished in 89th place out of 311 other runners. Hart expected Morales to do as well as he did.

“He is at that level,” he said. “He had some strategy there but he needs to work on his strategy a little bit more. He came out and ran his first mile in 4.50 ­– he overran the first half of the race and finished lower than he was really capable of finishing.”

Hart also said Hensley and freshmen Rolando Cruz and Alex Boyles did well. In fact, Hensley is really close to passing his own personal record. “It’s encouraging that he’s making so much improvement so fast. He’s going to pass his P.R. and go much farther than that this season,” said Hart.

Sophomore Isaac McNutt is also working on getting back into shape for meets. “He’s a little disappointed in himself right now because he didn’t train as much as he could have over the summer, but he’s trying to get back to form now,” said his coach.

As for the recruiting, Hart says it’s an ongoing process at the moment. Two new runners joined the team Wednesday for a workout in the pool, freshmen Nick Ngo and Mike Manus. He said if people want to join the cross country team, now is the time because of the need for important base training before meets. “Basically (to recruit more runners), we have to educate more about what we really do here,” said Hart. “It’s tons more than just going out and running.”

Hart and his team are excited about next year because they are expecting a big turnout for both cross country and track and field. “I am going work really hard on recruiting for next year’s team,” he said. “I’m just excited to see how they can excel next season.”

Boyles is also looking forward to the future of the team. “We aren’t really looking to do well this season. We just want to finish and then really get down to business next year.”