The men’s and women’s cross-country teams traveled to New Castle, PAa this past Saturday for the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Preview Meet. The goal of this meet is to give each team in the conference a chance to run on the championship course and to see the competition within the other schools. 

The men’s team ran their first 8k race of the season and placed sixth out of eight teams, led by freshman runner Ethan Wilson. Wilson crossed the finish line in 59  out of 101 runners. Shortly after Wilson, sophomore Kyle Casella placed 76 overall. Wilson explained how this meet will help the team progress throughout the rest of the season. 

“With six of us being freshman, we had not raced the 8k distance yet and didn’t know what to expect,” said Wilson. “I think we realized that the pack is going to go out a little faster than what will be maintained, and maybe we can use that to our advantage.”

Although there is still a large part of the season left, Wilson expresses the importance of enjoying each run and finding a way to build off each run to get better throughout the season. 

“I think the progress that comes over time and taking each day to try and improve is what makes this sport so enjoyable,” Wilson said.  “Anything can happen on race day and the tactics in racing I am finding to be very enjoyable.”

Head Coach Chris Hardie has known that Wilson had high potential. Hardie mentioned with such a young start to his career, Wilson has a lot of room to grow as long as he stays healthy.

“For me he was really a diamond in the rough type of recruit. When I was recruiting him, I could see that he didn’t have a lot of organized training plan, he did a lot of his own research and self-coaching,” said Hardie. “Those things told me that he would probably be really good if we could put him in a system that works. But the other things about him is he is the hardest worker, but he really does take care of the things outside of the sport that put him ahead.”

Moving onto the women’s side, they placed sixth out of nine teams. The ladies had three finishers in the top 40, which included Grace Tanksley (24), Taylor Severt (26) and Reagan Pettis (37). Tanksley reflects on this meet as a great workout meet that has helped the team establish their paces.

“This meet was ran more like a workout than a race which I think is helpful for the freshman,” said Tanksley. “It gives them a chance to see the course but more importantly the competition.”

With next weekend as the focus, Hardie says he is thankful for the preview to check out the terrain of the course, but is now focused on how the women can progress through the later part of the season. 

“The hardest part of doing a preview this early in the season is we are still at the point where we are not going to race hard,” said Hardie. “We are still using these races to figure out how we are going to strategically move forward on the year.”

Both the men and women cross country teams will travel to Bethany College on Saturday, Sept. 14, for the Bethany Invitational. Tanksley explains that this meet will be another workout for both teams because of the terrain. 

“We are still working on our paces,” said Tanksley. “Bethany is more rolling than the PAC’s course, but more hill work is important.”