Cross Country opens Saturday in Washington

Article care of Pete Belcastro, Sports Information Director - Southern Oregon University

By Josh McDermott, Sports Information Intern Ashland, Oregon (Sept. 18, 2008) -- The Southern Oregon Cross Country team looks to jump-start their season on Saturday when they will open up at the University of Washington's Sundodger Invitational in Seattle.

The women's 600-meter open race begins at 9 a.m., followed by the men's 800-meter event at 9:40 a.m.

The meet marks the SOU coaching debut of Brent Ericksen, who was selected in August to guide the Raiders. Ericksen spent last season as the Associate Head Cross Country Coach and Track and Field Coach at NCAA Division I Texas A&M Corpus Christi after being named NCAA Division III National, Regional and Conference Coach of the Year at Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2006-07.

Ericksen will bring a full men's team to Seattle, but an already shorthanded women's squad will be without their top runner, senior Katelyn Alley, who is scheduled to take the Law School Admission Test this weekend.

The men, who claimed the third spot in the Cascade Conference Preseason Coaches poll, are led by seniors Cameron Kreuz and Anthony Monteleone, and sophomore David Laney.

The team finished second at the Cascade Conference Championship meet last fall and all three runners finished in the top-25, including fifth- and ninth-place efforts by Kreuz and Laney. Kreuz went on to qualify for the NAIA championships with a 25:40 effort in the 8k at the Region I meet.

"Those guys are running really well right now," Ericksen said of the trio. "But we've got a nice group behind them as well, and it will be interesting to see if we can stay together as a pack."

Ericksen noted that whoever steps up to the fourth and fifth positions will determine what kind of season the Raiders will have as a team.

Alley led the women with a time of 20:26 and placed 19th at last year's conference championships, and then dropped her time to 19:44 at the Region I meet, claiming the 31st spot.

The women were picked ninth in the conference preseason poll, in part because they are only fielding a partial team.

Senior Whitney Riehl will join the squad after four years as a defensive specialist on the Raider volleyball team and Saturday will be her first time ever participating in a cross country meet.

"She's been a lot of fun, and she's such a hard worker which is what even allows her to make the transition," Ericksen said. "It will be quite an adventure after playing volleyball her whole life, all the sudden stepping in to run at UW."

Ericksen said the team is already looking forward to Oct. 4, when they will travel to Salem for the Charles Bowles invitational where they will get a better look at competition from around the conference.

"At this point, we just want to get an idea of where we're at,'
he said. "It will be a good experience to see who steps up and what we can do."