Cross country starts young and goes far

By Nicole Donner

As the 2006 cross country season and track season was approaching, coach Matt Hart looked at getting the upperhand in recruiting high school athletes.

In the beginning, Hart “inherited” the team from Coach Tony Baracco in 2005 when he left the team to teach. He found it was too late to actively recruit new athletes but made the best with the six members on the male team and the single female on the women’s team. They needed four more women to be able to compete in women’s events. Then sophomore, Ashley Mulvaney, was offered a spot on next year’s team but choose not to return. At the end of the Track and Field season, Hart ended the year with 19 competing athletes.

This year, he actively recruited many athletes who were not only out of district athletes but some out of state. Despite having recruited several athletes who ultimately chose not to join, the team is almost completely made up of freshmen athletes excluding returning sophomore Alex Boyles. Hart finds an advantage with recruited athletes as oppose to walk-ons.

“Walk-ons want to stay fit and have fun; it’s sometimes a social thing,” said Hart. “[Recruited athletes] tend to be more serious about competition and improving.” For their first meet in Seattle’s Lincoln Park on Sept. 16, Hart looked at the event as an introduction for the freshmen into college level cross country. The transition for some athletes going from a 5 K run in high school to a 8 K run can be tough for some.

“When you recruit, there’s energy that flows from one way to another. You can’t really fight [that] energy,” said Hart. “This year, a lot of the energy is in middle distance, like 400 meter runners.”

At the moment there are five to six athletes for the men’s team and five to six athletes for the women’s team. Hart feels the strength in the numbers but also realizes the disadvantage.

“We’ve got an extremely talented team but if there’s injury, we’re hurting a little bit,” said Hart. “If these freshmen continue to do what they’re doing and they carry over into next year, [they’ll be] more fit [and] more about to fit into the program.”

The season is off to a promising start after the meet in Seattle as Sheryl Page finished 12th at 22:23, placing the highest in the women’s cross country event followed closely by Annie Hayward in 129th at 24:41. The women’s team placed 21st in their event. Amber Sellers arrived in 227th placed at 27:05 followed by Brittany Beedle at 27:41 and finally Hannah Gustafson at 246th at 28:07.

Jarrett Ziemer placed 59th at 26:21 in the men’s 8 K run as he was followed by Alex Boyles in 187th at 28:13 and Juan De La Cruz in 192nd at 28:19. Nick Orvis finished for the men in 249th at 30:34.

The next meet for both teams will be Saturday at the Willamette Invite in Salem’s Bush Park.