Marquette University Athletics
Men's Cross Country Season Preview
9/8/2004 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
After so many years of coming close, the Marquette men?s Cross Country team finally got ?over the hump? as head coach Dave Uhrich explains it.
?The men for so long were just trying to win it and they had taken second so many times,? Uhrich said. ?They couldn?t get over the hump. That title will give them so much more confidence going into this season knowing that they were able to win the conference meet.?
The Golden Eagles will return its three top runners?sophomore Jeremy Williams, junior Brent Des Roches and junior David Henderson?all of whom placed seventh or higher at the C-USA Championship meet.
?No other Conference USA team can say that. That is a great trio to have leading your team throughout the season.
Bringing back Jason Crichton who redshirted last year and Bo Erickson who had food poisoning at last year?s meet gives us a pretty good group of returning runners who blend experience and talent.?
Williams earned C-USA Freshman of the Year and team MVP honors in 2003 and will return as one of the strongest runners on the team. He took second overall at the 2003 C-USA Championship meet, missing a first place finish by two seconds.
Des Roches will also be key to a second straight C-USA title for Marquette as he was Marquette?s top finisher at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional.
The next ?hump? for Marquette to overcome is qualifying for the NCAA National Championship meet. The Golden Eagle men?s Cross Country team has never qualified for the NCAA National Championship. Knowing they were able to overcome one challenge, the team is looking at qualifying for the NCAA meet as their next challenge.
?Our regional (the Great Lakes Region) is by far the best regional in the country every year,? Uhrich said. ?That makes it a little more difficult for us to qualify for nationals. We are not that far off from qualifying for nationals. We just have to take one more step up from last year if we want to not only win conference but to make nationals. I think that is definitely on their minds when training over the summer.?
Junior Tommy Schmitz also returns from last year?s C-USA Championship team and with his solid experience, will be a be sure to make a positive contribution to the Golden Eagles.
Uhrich knows how close the team is to reaching that level and continues to bring in athletes every year that will make his team stronger. Kyle Saginus and Josh Pinter lead this year?s list of incoming recruits.
?Saginus and Pinter are both very capable of being all-conference level performers,? Uhrich said. ?They are both distance orientated. For the men entering the college level, to go from a 5k to a 10k is a big jump. That is why I think they will be able to adjust a little better to college cross country.?
>
