Richard Anderson photo
Mark Korir and Emily Byra were on hand to represent the Wyoming cross country teams Friday at Media Day.
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
When the University of Wyoming cross country teams hit the trail at Jacoby Golf Course for its season opener in a little over two weeks, it will be a chance to see if both squads have improved on last year’s performance.
When the Cowboys and Cowgirls compete in the Mountain West Conference Championships late in the season in San Diego, it will be an opportunity to see if both teams can compete with the best.
If Wyoming coach Randy Cole has his druthers, the end result is everything.
“In cross country, it is a little different than baseball, football or basketball when you have your won-loss record that sets up seeding for the postseason,” Cole said. “In cross country, everything else you do before is somewhat secondary. You have to be ready to race on the day of conference or regionals to get you going to the national meet. It’s all pointing towards the end of October or November.”
Cole has things set up for a successful season: The Cowboys and Cowgirls will have to follow through with it.
“A lot of the guys returning obviously got a taste of what it is like to compete at a good level, and they got to go to some good, quality meets,” Cole said. “They dedicated themselves into getting a good summer of training. They realize that ‘hey, we’re as good as anybody else in this conference.’ They still have to execute and get the training in and motivate each other and raise our level.
“When you get a good person in, it just raises the level of everybody else. If the guys don’t want to raise their level, they are pretty much left by the wayside. That’s not the case now. Everybody is understanding and buying in to what we’re trying to accomplish, and that’s getting in consistent work and transferring that to race hard at the championships.”
The Cowboys, of course, have that “good person” is senior Mark Korir, the defending league champion, a two-time All-American and also a member of the MWC All-Decade team.
“Mark has the opportunity to be one of the best in the nation,” Cole said. “We will really look to him to lead this team and push them not only in meets but in practice.”
The Cowboys have a nice mix of experience and young talent coming in. The team is lead by four seniors: Korir, Michael Huntington, Brett Schuler and Shadrack Too.
Sophomores Seth Grossman, Taylor Kelting, Noel Limo and Greg Miller are a year older and a year stronger. Along with first time cross country runners Eliud Chirchir and Philemon Kimutai, who joined the track team half way through the 2007 season, will be a nice group to score points at conference this season.
“All six of these guys have a season of training under their belts and will add
some nice experience for our incoming freshman to follow,” said Cole. Newcomers for the Cowboys this season include Laramie native Ryan Griesbach and Brian McGuire.
“We have a nice blend of young guys with some experience and older guys who will push the younger guys to the next level,” said Cole. “Now, it just depends on how well we transfer our training to competition.”
The Cowgirls will look to improve on last year’s fourth-place finish, led by Emily Higgins, who earned second team All-MWC honors last year for her 14th place finish at the MWC Championships.
During the Mountain Region meet in Riverdale, Utah, Higgins placed 31st.
“Emily really came on towards the end of the outdoor track and field season,” Cole said. “She is starting to understand what we are trying to accomplish and she has a great drive to never be beat, which we love.”
More experience back for the Cowgirls include juniors Brenna Dooley and Erin Heffron and sophomores Alysha Davis and Laramie native Emily Byra.
The newcomers for the Cowgirls include redshirt sophomore Irene Masai and freshmen Alex Kesterson, Mary Lee and Molly Lux. Masai from Nairobi, Kenya, transferred from Oklahoma State University, where she participated on the cross country and track and field teams.
“I am really excited about this recruiting class,” Cole said. “As long as they continue to mature with training and race experience, they will really help us out down the road.”
Most of the Cowboys stayed in Laramie over the summer while most of the Cowgirls were away. The team’s start, middle and finish all go back to training, Cole said.
“If you can execute some workouts on a consistent basis, all you have to do is transfer that to a racecourse; then you are going to do well,” he said. “That’s what we have to do in the process; get the training in and get to the meet believing in it and executing it and not running completely different than what the race plan was. If we compare and contrast everybody in the conference and what we’ve done, I think we can be right in the mix.
“That is pretty exciting.”
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