Women’s team will try to repeat last year’s suc­cess while the men look to rebound from shortcomings

Torch File PhotoWomen’s Cross Country: The Ferris State cross coun­try team is ranked 18^th in the nation in the United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association Division II Preseason Poll.

With numer­ous return­ing run­ners from 2008, the Ferris State men’s and women’s cross coun­try teams have high expec­ta­tions for the 2009 season.

The women’s team, which fin­ished 17^th at the NCAA-II National Championships in 2008, are ranked 18^th in the nation in the United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II Preseason Poll. They join Grand Valley State as the only two Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) schools in the top 25.

The women will be return­ing seven run­ners from the 2008 squad, includ­ing junior Tina Muir, who earned All-American hon­ors last year. Muir became only the sec­ond female ever to earn All-American hon­ors in Bulldog’s cross coun­try history.

Paige Onweller, Megan Josey, and Nikki Wiers, all of whom had respetable fin­ishes at the 2008 NCAA-II National Championships, are also return­ing to the team. Onweller said she is look­ing for­ward to how much sup­port the team has already shown for each other dur­ing prac­tice and even out­side of cross country.

“I’ve never seen a team this close and sup­port­ive, so it gets me really excited,” said Onweller.

In an attempt to make the fresh­man feel more relaxed and com­fort­able as they make their tran­si­tion from high school to col­lege, Muir and Onweller invited the fresh­man to their apart­ment for a week­end dur­ing the summer.

Torch File PhotoMen’s Cross Country: With 10 new fresh­man, the men’s cross coun­try team is fresh and posed for great­ness, attempt­ing to sur­pass their own 10^th place fin­ish in the GLIAC Championship in 2008.

“As a fresh­man, you can get caught up in try­ing to find your posi­tion on the team and com­pet­ing with each other, but I think what we did helped show them that we need to work together and moti­vate each other,” said Onweller.

As the men’s team enters the 2009 sea­son, it will be look­ing to improve upon its 10^th place fin­ish in the GLIAC Championship in 2008.

Eight starters will be return­ing from a sea­son ago, includ­ing seniors Brian Reynolds and Curtis Begley. Tyler Crossman who was named the men’s cross coun­try MVP last year as a fresh­man will also be one of those returning.

There are sev­eral new faces amongst those vet­er­ans as the 2009 team is sport­ing 10 fresh­men. As Crossman showed last year, a fresh­man can come in and make a big impact on the team. Both the men’s and women’s teams will hit the ground run­ning on Sept. 5 at the Hope College Vanderbilt Invitational at 10:30 a.m.