After second place finishes for both the men and women’s cross country teams in the ACC Championships last season, the teams are looking to rebuild. Experience, however, may be an issue as the men showcase a roster depleted of five of their elite runners from last year including ACC champion Chris Kollar.
“I think we have something to prove after last year,” redshirt senior Gavin Coombs said. “We obviously want to try to take our title back, but we have lost a lot of runners this year, so no one is really expecting us to do well, but people always see N.C. State as a dominant team.”
With a whopping 27 combined ACC championships the cross country team has a right to be respected. Now in his 27th year as N.C. State’s coach, Rollie Geiger believes that youth doesn’t always lead to a disappointing season.
“These young guys are biting at the bit — they love working hard and competing,” coach Rollie Geiger said. “They just don’t like losing at anything. They’ll play horseshoes and be competitive. Having a young team doesn’t mean that you can’t win.”
Echoing Geiger’s optimism, Coombs believes even with so many young faces, the team has a promising future.
“The freshman have jumped right in and picked up pretty easily,” Coombs said. “They definitely have a lot of potential.”
One thing that hasn’t been lost from last year is the team’s goals — win the ACC championship, qualify for nationals, and finish in the top 10.
Redshirt junior John Martinez believes this may be difficult given the number of returnees at conference powers Virginia and Florida State.
“We’ll definitely be flying under the radar this year with a lot of people focusing on Virginia and Florida State,” Martinez said. “It’s good for us though because it takes the weight off of our shoulders.”
In addition to the men, the women’s team may have some problems of their own. After losing All-ACC runner Angelina Blackmon to graduation, returning All-ACC senior Brittany Tinsley went down with a stress reaction in her hip over the summer.
“It’s a huge loss,” junior Kara McKenna said. “You can’t replace Brittany. She’s trying really hard and everybody is going to be there for her, but we’re just going to have to get people to step up.”
Given the nature of Tinsley’s injury, women’s coach Laurie Henes couldn’t offer an exact timeline for the senior’s return.
“Brittany is running again now, but she missed a decent amount of time over the summer,” Henes said. “It’s going to be a day-to-day decision for her.
Henes also noted two of the team’s other more veteran players will likely have some catching up to do.
“Bona Jones and Colleen Wetherbee both missed the end of the track season last year, so that’s just always a situation where they haven’t raced at the level they want to for a while.”
The Wolfpack women will have a total of 13 true freshmen this year while the men will have six redshirt freshmen and seven true freshmen.
“We return a really good core group in Kara McKenna and Mareeka Walker, but we are an extremely young team,” coach Laurie Henes said. “Our freshmen are really stepping it up, though. They are so competitive, aggressive and eager to race.” Both State teams will run at the first of only two home meets this season on Friday at the Wolfpack Invitational in Cary.
“We do have a very young team, but the dynamics will change a lot,” McKenna said. “I think we’re going to be strong and have the younger runners gain experience quickly.”