Distance runners sprinting to improvement

Men's and women's teams geared up for today's meet

You might just catch a glimpse of them from the corner of your eye. A single figure, or perhaps a small group, that disappears down a side street as quickly as it reappears in the center of campus.

Who are they?

Why are they here?

They are the Oberlin men's and women's cross country teams. And they're here because the lack of variation in the terrain makes their jobs that much easier. No, seriously, they're back for another season of competition and aiming for the top spot in the confrence.

The women's squad, looking to improve on last year's fourth place finish, returns all but three players and gains four new runners. Coach Tom Mulligan, head coach for both the men's and women's cross-country teams, feels that things are shaping up well. "It's encouraging that the nucleus is back, and while it's still a little bit early, I think things are coming together nicely," he said.

Mulligan is stressing a team atmosphere this year, which may be surprising to those who have always thought of distance running as more focused on the success of individual members of the team. In actuality, it's more valuable point-wise for the team to finish well together rather than to have one or two big winners and the rest of the team scattered through the standings.

As such, team members are a little more willing to sacrifice a few scores early on in exchange for peak performance, both individually and as a team, come mid-October. From there, both teams hope to carry some momentum into the play-offs, but that remains farther down the road.

The men's team also has another goal: to prove that last year's eighth place finish, the worst in team history, was nothing more than a fluke. They come well armed to the task with four fresh faces helping cover last year's loss of five members, and with another strong group of returnees. All involved hope that compounding problems involved in last year's dismal finish, including the loss of a key runner before even the first race, will find no place with the team during this season.

As for where exactly the two teams will place, "It's hard to nail where in the conference we'll be," Mulligan said. "On paper, there are several strong teams." Wooster, the defending women's champ, has its entire team back for another go. On the men's side, Dennison remains the conference favorite with Wooster running a close second. Last year's conference champ Allegheny College has lost too many key players to be considered a serious contender for a repeat performance.

Many questions will be answered today at 6 p.m. when both teams start their seasons at home against Wooster College. The competition between these two teams has risen to the level of pleasant rivalry over the years. Mulligan speculates that this is due to how close together the two schools are, as well as the fact that they run two meets against each other each year.

It probably doesn't hurt, however, that Oberlin gained the services of two 'defectors' from Wooster in recent years. Regardless of the reasons, both schools see this meet as a kick-off to another season, and a very helpful one at that.

"Some people will be fighting extreme nervousness in this, their first college meet. It's good then that this is the first [meet] of the season since it's not a massive meet," said Mulligan. Rookies on both teams can also use this meet as a springboard into the college level of competition which requires much longer distances than high school.

Coach Mulligan and his teams look forward to the meet as a good gauge of where they stand- and where they have to go. "At this point, results aren't as important as the progress we're making," said Mulligan. But come October, expect results to count more and more- and to get better and better.