Men's Cross Country Looking to Three-Peat at Landmark Meet
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Back-to-back Landmark Conference championships bring an abundance of confidence and self-esteem.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Back-to-back Landmark Conference championships bring an abundance of confidence and self-esteem.
They also make a team a sizable target for the following year. This is a good problem to have for the Moravian College men's cross country team.
"We've won two conference titles in a row and we would like to keep that going," said Head Coach Jesse Baumann. "A major goal of ours is to make Nationals and bring back the dominance of the mid-90s. Winning conference titles has been important for a young team in establishing success."
Junior harriers Alec Duncan and Dillon Farrell look to pick up where they left off last fall on the trails. Duncan, a Landmark All-Conference First Team selection, ran his best 8K time of 2012 with a 26:30 at the Princeton University Invitational.
Farrell's time of 24:44 at Princeton broke the school record and the Landmark Conference record in the 8K. As only a sophomore, he was named to the Mid-East All-Region Team as well as winning Landmark Conference Runner of the Year. From the looks of it, this is only the beginning.
"Dillon is, hands down, in the best shape he's ever been in his entire life," Baumann said. "If he were to be named an All-American, I would not be surprised. He had a great end to the spring track season, so I expect him to have a great cross country season."
Baumann was happy to see some of the new faces on the team adapt quickly to Moravian's winning culture. Freshmen Andrew Mitchell, Andrew Reed and Matt Werner were al l standouts in the high school track and field 800-meter event and are working hard to transition to the tricky 8K distance.
Rookies Cory Taggert and Alex Sobel were also adept on the track and show promise in cross country.
The Greyhounds were picked to finish second in the Landmark Conference in the preseason coaches' poll as Susquehanna University was chosen to unseat Moravian atop the conference with six first-place votes. Baumann admits his runners will be competing with the Crusaders even when the teams are at separate meets.
"It gives you an extra carrot to chase all year," he said. "They will check the results to see how Susquehanna did at a meet, so even if we're not facing them head-to-head, we're still competing with them and that motivates our guys when they go on a long training run."
Moravian will get their first shot at the competition on Saturday, August 31 when the season begins at the Lehigh University Invitational at 10:30 a.m.
