This is the year that the men's cross country program has been waiting for.
After surviving a couple of seasons in the early nineties at or near the bottom of the Ivy League, the squad finally has the seasoned talent to make a run for the Ancient Fight's upper tier.
"We are very, very excited," head coach Frank Haggerty says. "We had a good season last year, although we think we could have done better, and we think we can do better this year. I'm very pleased."
Last season the team went into the season not quite sure what to expect. It was young, inexperienced and entering the most competitive Ivy League competition in recent memory.
The thinclads were a pleasant surprise, however. Behind the leadership of a charismatic senior class, a number of younger athletes stepped up and and led the team on the courses. The Crimson ended up finishing fourth at Heps, its best result in years.
This year, most of the top performers from a year ago are back. Foremost among them are junior Brian Walsh, sophomore Ian Carswell and sophomore Killian Lonergan. Walsh finished in the top three in all but one meet last season. Carswell, in all but the first two and Lonergan, in all but four. Lonergan has been sidelined with a back pain this season but is expected to be back in the line-up for most of the season.
"The talent is definitely there--we have high goals for ourselves this season," Haggerty says. "It will just be a matter of following through. That will be no easy task."
Like the women's team, the goal of the men's season is a high placing at Heps. That will be no easy task: the league is maybe even stronger than last season.
Dartmouth is the league favorite. The Big Green seems to have all the bases covered: superb runners, a great tradition and penchant for running best in big meets. Says Haggerty: "They've just got a great team."
While conceding that Dartmouth is the Heps front-runner, Haggerty is confident that the Crimson has a chance to garner an upset.
"We can do it," he says. "A lot would have to go right for us, but we can do it."
Haggerty believes that the Crimson will have to do two things to win Heps and, more generally, compete will this season. First, it will have to avoid injuries. And second, each runner will have to live by the concept of "interchangeability."
"Interchangeability is an ability to look past your particular team spot in a particular race," Haggerty explains. "In other words, you don't think of yourself as the just the fourth-best runner on the team if you're in the fourth position. You think of yourself as the best runner and you believe that you can win.
"It's been my experience that thinking that you are other than the best is a self-fulfilling prophecy," he adds.
Haggerty's concept of "interchangeability" can be used to explain the mindset of the whole team this season. The Crimson is coming into the year confident that it can win Heps and ready to prove it. The team's training schedule this season has been intense: individual training all summer and two-a-day team workouts since September 2.
"We've been working them hard and they've been taking it well," Haggerty says. "They came into the season in good shape. With the exception of a few causes for concern, practices have gone nicely."
The chief "causes of concern" have been injuries to Key runners which have thrown kinks into training schedules. These injuries include Lonergan's mysterious back ailment and a knee injury to sophomore Danny Herlihy. Both are expected to be back, however.
"Nothing disastrous has happened this year or anything like that," Haggerty says. "We're working on a few things like getting people back in the line-up and developing our fourth, fifth and sixth positions, but we're not too worried. More than anything, we're very, very excited."
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