By Dennis Brown
As summer comes to an end and the classrooms begin to fill up for the fall semester, the men’s and women’s cross country teams at CCSU lace up their running shoes and ready themselves for a brand new season.
In 2009 the Blue Devils had good seasons with the men’s team finishing second out of eleven schools in two different meets and ninth out of 24 in the IC4A Championships to finally take a big first place finish in the NEC Championships.
The women’s team also fared well, placing fifth out of 11 in two different meets as well as third out of 10 in the Monmouth Invitational and sixth in the NEC Championships.
Now in 2010 CCSU has a lot going for them. Head Coach Eric Blake really knows what he’s doing as head coach of the Blue Devils. This is his second year as coach of the men’s team and first as the women’s. Blake’s staff is comprised of a lot of talent, with Coach Kyle Greene-Pendelton and Coach Katie Souviney working on the track events while Coach Brad Dion from Indiana University and Coach Laura Brustolon from Southern Connecticut State University take care of distance running.
“You want them to be knowledgeable on what you’re doing,” said Coach Blake about his staff.
The men come into 2010 extra hungry.
“Last year we were underdogs, now we come into the season as the favorites, so there’s the pressure of that, there’s a different mindset. They’ve worked very hard to have a better season,” said Blake.
The men are led by two returning juniors in Sam Alexander, who had the most points amongst all CCSU runners last year, and Jeremy Schmid, who will be seen at the front of the pack as well.
“They have improved a lot, they will be two of our top runners. We have a big group of guys, a lot of experience and they are in great shape, at least five of our runners can be number one,” Blake explains.
Aside from the two juniors the coach made it a point to mention that the previously red shirted Ry Anderson is very capable of running at the front with teammates Alexander and Schmid. Others to look out for include sophomore Craig Hunt, senior Robert Weston, junior Kevin Tiernan and incoming freshman Andrew Hill out of Bacon Academy.
On the women’s side, the team enters the season after losing valuable runners Kim Savino and Alyssa Cole. Savino and Cole were the number two and five runners respectively on the team last year. This means there are some big holes to be filled. The good news is that two time All-Conference runner Katherine Bossardet will be back for one more year.
Two other big threats for CCSU include junior Amanda Asaro and senior Nicole Coiteux, who also made some noise last year. The up-and-coming freshman for the Blue Devils include Lizzie Eberhardt out of Thomaston and Megan MacBryde from Coventry.
“This is a good top five pack, our goal is to get more runners up with them,” Blake said. “Our most improved runner is to be announced, it has been a good first three weeks of training,” he added.
“The NEC Championship is at home this year and the NCAA Regionals is at Hammonasset State Park for the first time, these are the meets we look forward to the most,” said Blake. “Our main goal is set on the last meets in late October, early November so these early season ones are just to get ready for those.”
The two teams race next Saturday Sept. 18 in Hartford for the Hartford Hawks Riverfront Cross Country Festival.
