Author: Kelsey Longmuir
After a phenomenal 2007 season, the Occidental Men’s cross country team feels that they have a big pair of shoes to fill. The team boasts a set of back-to-back Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) titles from 2006 and 2007, and finished 18th in the NCAA Division III Championships last fall. This year’s team is stepping up to the starting line without several talented runners who graduated last year, including SCIAC Athlete of the Year Kevin Chavez and All-American Alex Ramon.
“The guys we lost last year will be hard to replace, but I’m confident that the team will continue to develop and will eventually exceed the standards set by the class of ’08,” coach Rob Bartlett said. Bartlett hopes that the team will finish in the top two in the SCIAC conference meet.
A strong group of first-year recruits will be the key to the team’s success this season. The three first years, Eric Kleinsasser, Will Hollingsworth and Jeff Ross all have an impressive history of high school running, and the team hopes that they will continue their success at the collegiate level. When asked about the new first years, Bartlett said they are “phenomenally talented and will make an instant impact on the team this year.” Bartlett, who was named the West Regional Coach of the Year in 2007, will be working with new senior captains David Martinez and Keith Blumenfeld to shape the new team.
The team is by no means taking the rebuilding process flat-footed. A major key to success in cross country is a grueling summer training regime, and this summer has been no different for the men of Oxy cross country. Each individual member of the team has been working very hard over the summer, doing workouts on their own if they live out of state and running anywhere between 40 to 80 miles a week. On campus, the team meets four mornings a week between 6 and 6:30 a.m., and three afternoons a week.
The Occidental team was back at school on Aug. 25 to begin fall training. Their next chance to compete will be on Sept. 13 at the Redlands Invitational at the University of Redlands. In the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) preseason rankings, the Oxy men were ranked fourth in the West Region. Also in the top-ten preseason ranking are fellow SCIAC teams from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, ranked second, Redlands, ranked seventh, and Pomona-Pitzer, ranked tenth.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
