The Virginia men's and women's cross country teams open their season tomorrow with the Lou Onesty Invitational. The races will be held at Charlottesville's Panorama Farm, and the field will be comprised of nine teams. The Cavaliers hope to use this early test to gain momentum and develop experience among the younger runners.
The women's squad is excited to get the season underway and continue to build on last year's success. Seniors Jane Maxwell and Meghan McGarvey return alongside sophomore Kara Scanlin to again lead the Cavalier harriers. With the promise of their return, the squad is ranked 20th in the preseason cross country poll and are coming off their second consecutive NCAA Championship berth. While they are focused on Saturday's invitational, the team has not forgotten this season's larger goals.
"Definitely to get back to nationals and be top-three in the ACC -- that's always our team goal," Maxwell said.
The recent success of the women's team, in part, revolves around the new mentality fostered by coach Jason Dunn and the quality of incoming runners since Dunn took over four years ago. His optimism and belief in the ability of his runners has positively rubbed off on the women's team.
"They needed to see themselves as a team that could go to nationals every year," Dunn said."It's not like we're reinventing the wheel with our training -- I think it's just a matter of their expectations being that they can go to nationals every year."
While in years past the women's team has not lacked talented runners, it often lacked the necessary confidence.The team's new mentality has not gone unnoticed to Maxwell.
"It's amazing what's happened," she said. "My freshman year, nationals was never even mentioned. With each first-year class, they keep getting better. They're coming in expecting to go to nationals."
The men's team kicks off this season looking to better last year's near-miss of the NCAA Championship. Seniors Andrew Filachek and Walton Kingsberry join junior Will Christian as the team's top returning runners. While they share the women's team's confidence, they have decided to set more immediate team goals.
"We're really trying to focus on regionals this year," Filachek said. "The top two qualifiers automatically go to nationals form regionals."
The Cavaliers have trained tremendously hard in the offseason and hope that their work, as well as their familiarity with one another will be their ticket to success.
"It helps to really know each other, and we help each other along in races," Filachek said. "We've talked a lot about pack running and keeping everyone up in the front of the race and pushing everyone else along."
Dunn believes that the men are close to getting over the hump and starting a tradition as a perennial powerhouse. "For the last few years, they've really been a team that's been on the verge of making nationals," Dunn said. "This year I think we've got a good group of guys returning who worked hard this summer, and I think we have some very talented freshmen who can help us right away."
With experienced talent returning, the promise of solid freshmen classes and newfound confidence, the men's and women's team hope to share the experience of NCAA berths.The first step towards this goal will come tomorrow.
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