2001 Cross Country Outlook
10/25/2001 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Sept. 9, 2001
Men's Outlook
The 2000 Falcons opened the new decade with a trip to the NCAA championships where they finished 16th in the 31-team field. The 2001 team plans to use that as a springboard to the best decade of Falcon cross country since the 1960's when the Falcons went to the NCAAs five times and had four top 10 NCAA finishes.
"The next step for our program is to qualify for the NCAA championships on a regular basis," said head coach Mark Stanforth when asked what goals he has in mind for the cross country program. "We're coming off a decade in which we established ourselves as one of the top two cross country programs in our conference (three championships and three runners-up) and we want to establish ourselves now as one of the top 20 programs in the country."
The biggest obstacle for the Falcons in their quest for national prominence is the quality of the Mountain Region. For the past eight years the Mountain Region has been one of the top two regions highlighted by the 2000 season when six Mountain Region teams were selected for national competition and all six finished in the top 25. The University of Colorado, with seven top five NCAA finishes in the last eight years, and Northern Arizona University, with six trips to the NCAAs in the last seven years and four top 10 finishes are the teams to beat each year in the region. Throw in Weber State (four top 20 finishes in the last seven years) and BYU with four NCAA trips in eight years, including a second-place finish in 1993, and you understand what Stanforth means when he says, "the toughest part about getting in the top 20 at the NCAA meet is getting out of our region."
The other major goal for the cross country team is to win the Mountain West Conference. The 2001 Falcons will attempt to break BYU's four-year stranglehold on the conference crown.
The Returnees:
The Falcons return six of last year's top 10 performers. The 2000 team featured a close pack with five different team leaders in the seven races the Falcons ran. Four of those five leaders return. C3C (So.) Chris Acs was the team MVP and was the top Falcon finisher in two races. Fellow C3C Ben Payne earned all-conference honors when he led the Falcons at the Mountain West Conference Championships. C1C (Sr.) David Romero finished 18th at the Mountain Region meet to earn all-region honors while fellow first classman Albert Kelly led the Falcons at the NCAA meet with his 85th-place finish. Add 1,500-meter school record holder C1C Brian Carpenter to that group and the Falcons again have the ingredients for a team that will run close together.
C2Cs (Jr.) Jim Blech was close to making the top seven a year ago and should challenge for top five positions this fall. Fellow juniors Adam Chitwood and Luke Mostoller, along with C3C Terry Allen, are also capable of moving into the top group.
"Our top five finished less then 45 seconds apart in every race last year and I expect that we will continue that this year. That's what it will take for us to be successful," said Stanforth.
Acs and Payne stepped into the top five for the Falcons in 2000 and the recruits in this year's class have the same potential to contribute either in 2001 or later years. Headlining the largest group of middle distances/distance recruits the Falcons have ever had are Danny Soule, Pensacola, Fla., Florida state 2A runner-up in cross country and a 1:51.45 800-meter performer in track. Nathan Franz, Sierra Vista, Ariz., third in the Arizona state cross country meet with a 4:15.0 best in the 1,600. Tom Kubler, Thousand Oaks, Calif., a 9:16 3,200-meter runner who finished in the top two three years in a row in the California Division 5 state cross country meet. Erik Goff, Bettendorf, Iowa, three-time state 1,600 meter runner-up and a top five finisher in the Iowa state cross country meet his junior and senior years.
"If any of the freshmen contribute this fall, it will be a bonus for us, however, there isn't any question that this is as good a group as we've recruited in my nine years here," said Stanforth in his evaluation of the incoming recruits.
The third-place finish by the Falcon women in the 2000 Mountain West Conference championships was their second straight top three finish and 2001 should bring more of the same. The Falcons finished in the top 10 (ninth) in the Mountain Region for the first time and are poised to challenge for a top five finish in the region.
"BYU will win the conference again, that's a given, however, we plan to challenge CSU for second," stated coach Mark Stanforth in outlining the goals for the 2001 season. He continued, "We can also move up in the region and we plan to challenge for an NCAA berth soon."
The Returnees:
The 2001 Falcons return eight of the top nine from the 2000 team, everyone except team leader Jaime Flood. Cadets first class (Sr.) Lara Coppinger, team captain, and Sara Kinney will provide the leadership for a team whose nucleus is a group of two second class cadets, (Jr.) Elissa Ballas and Tracy Denaro, and six third class cadets, (So.) Jean Taylor, Brandess Pardue, Kelly McPherson, Stephanie Cornell and Anne Chumlea.
"All of our younger athletes gained valuable experience last year, and, assuming they worked hard over the summer, should show significant improvement," commented Stanforth when asked to justify his optimism for the 2001 season. "We've reached the level where we expect to be in the top three in the conference. The next step is to become more competitive in the region."
Taylor, Ballas, Chumlea, Pardue, Denaro and McPherson finished within 35 seconds of each other in the MWC meet a year ago and all six finished in the top 35 competitors in that meet. A year of work and improvement should move the whole group close to the front and into a position to challenge CSU for second.
The Newcomers:
Two California recruits, Cindy Dawson from Yreka, Calif., and Sarah Rettmann from Mission Viejo, Calif., will join the Falcons this year. Dawson, a 2:17 800-meter runner, and Rettmann with bests of 5:12 in the 1,600 meters and 11:20 in the 3,200 meters, will fit right into the team and should provide additional depth for the Falcons in their quest for continued improvement.
