Murray State University Athletics
Men's and Women's Cross Country Teams Ready For Season
8/30/2013 2:24:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
The Murray State men's and women's cross country teams are ready for the 2013 season.
The Racer women's team, coming off of a fourth place team finish at the 2012 OVC Championships will look to improve for the 2013 campaign. The Racers will be led by three returning top 30 individual finishers. Carolyn Tanui, who finished 12th last season returns as well as Abbie Oliver (28th), and Brittany Bohn (29th). The Racers also return two runners who sat out last year in Emma Gilmore and Alicyn Hester. Also coming back is Leah Krause, who finished 59th in the 2012 championship, but is coming off of a very good spring track season.
The Racers were picked to finish fourth in the 2013 campaign in a poll voted of OVC coaches, but Head Coach Jenny Severns believes the race is wide open.
"I think the conference is wide open, with only 28 of the top 50 runners from last year returning there is room to move up." Severns said. "Everybody did what they needed to do in the offseason, we're not where we want to be at the end of the year, but right now we feel good about where we are. I definitely think we should improve from last year."
The Racer men will look to improve this season coming off of an 11th place finish at last seasons' OVC championships. The Racer men return five of their top seven runners from last season. Lucas Prather is the only returner who finished inside the top 50 at the 2012 OVC Championship with a 48th place finish.
Newcomers may be the story for the 2013 Racers as they welcome in two transfers and three freshman. Transfers Cole Cisneros and Brian Coleman both come to Murray State competing for a top five spot. Freshmen Mitch Harris, Evan Staviski, and Neil Yockey come into the 2013 season battling for a top 5 spot as well.
Severns believes that depth may be the strength of the men's squad.
"We do have a lot of depth." Severns said "We're returning five of our top seven runners to start off and then you add in our five newcomers and we have ten guys challenging each other for five spots."
Severns said she's also excited about the competition within the team.
"The team improved so much in one year" Severns said "On any given day our top could be different."
The Racer men's and women's team will kick off their 2013 campaign at the Belmont Opener (Aug 30) at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, TN.
