The University of Akron Athletics
Q & A With Cross Country Coach Scott Jones
September 05 | Cross Country
Sept. 5, 2003
AKRON, Ohio - The University of Akron's cross country teams will host the 35th Tommy Evans Invitational tomorrow. The race will be run on the Indigo Lake Course at Howe Meadow in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The men's 4 mile race is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. and the women's 5km race will follow at 12:15 pm.
Joining the Zips will be the men's and women's teams from Mid-American Conference rival Buffalo, Kent State and the women's team from Cleveland State. The UA women's team will be going for their fourth win in the last five years.
GoZips.com sat down with UA cross country coach Scott Jones to get his thoughts on the opening meet and the 2003 season.
We are less than 24 hours away from the first duel meet of the season. At this point, how are you feeling about the teams?
"I think I feel good about both the teams. Let me start with the
men, as they have been in the shadow of the women a little bit and
that is an unfortunate thing. We have a new coach working with the
men's team, Rick Williamson. That has been good for everybody. It
is nice to have another set of eyes and ears at practice. We are
able to give each athlete more individual attention, That has been
something that has helped already. It has taken some of the load
off of me, but more importantly has been a big boost for the guys.
I think it will really pay dividends for all of us down the
road.
|
|
The men's team is led by David Howard, who was our most valuable runner last season. He was the top freshman at the MAC Championship last year and that is something that seems to be overlooked by most people. He is coming off of knee surgery, but he seems to be running well. He is not exactly where he was at this time last year, but I think when Nov. 1 rolls around and with it the MAC Championship, he will be right up there with the top runners in the MAC. We have a couple of other guys, David Pykare and Chris Perun who are also running really well. I think having a year of cross country experience under their belts will really help them out. Adam Bray, right now is our fourth guy, and than we have a few guys competing for the fifth spot. Scott Mate, a freshman from Stow-Monroe Falls High School, does not have a real cross country background. He was a track guy in high school, an 800-meter runner, but he has responded well to the training. Nathan Ollish, from Watkins Memorial High School is another freshman and Andrew Adams who is in his second year at UA but his first on the cross country team.
For the women we won't be running with Adriana for the first few meets. She is coming off of a long track season and a little injury, but she is doing her background training but I think she has a good level of fitness. Right now Morgan Sulzener has been running really really well. I think that she can be a very high placer in the MAC meet. I look for her to lead us in these first few meets. I think she has the capability to run with Adriana when they start competing in the same races. Jennie Castle is somebody who has been very successful in track for us. She was second in the MAC in the 800-meters both indoors and outdoors. I think she has really taken it upon herself to be a successful cross country runner. She has done a lot of hard work and I think she has put herself in a position to be a very good runner. We have two people who added depth to our team last year that have stepped up. Brandi Schoeppner was our fifth runner last year, had a good summer and has been a very consistent runner for us. Becki Michael who did not have the best MAC meet, but was a contributor throughout the season. She worked hard during the summer and I think she is going to make a tremendous jump.
Incidentally, we have had people that have done that. Athletes that have come in as freshman and were not that successful, but they learn the system and how to train and compete. In `99, when we won the MAC women's crown, Laura Jones finished 16th, and the year before she had finished 77th. So we don't want to constrain ourselves based on past performances, we want to concentrate on the present and the future. So I have high hopes for those individuals and for our team.
Once the Tommy Evans Invitational is over tomorrow, what will it take for you to say that it was a successful race for the men's and women's teams.
Cross country is a sport where we can grow over the course of a season and right now we are in a stage where we are training very hard and we are not going to be as sharp as we would like. People are definitely going to go into this meet a little tired. The things I have talked to our athletes about is how we should compete. If we compete well but not wind up running fast times, than that is ok for where we are at right now. I think the other thing is how intelligently we race. Putting together a good race, both in terms of how we respond to the competition, how we can optimize things in terms of pacing and how we work together as a team. is very important.
Season goals in your eyes for the men's and women's squads.
I think we have a women's teams that should look at itself as a serious MAC contender. On paper, there were schools that we picked ahead of us in the preseason poll. We have a lot of talent on our team though. I think that is what we have to set as our goal, and I think that is what the women on the team have internally set as their goal.
For the men, the goals are a little bit different. I think we are still where we are looking at making sure we understand the process of what it takes to be successful. Both Buffalo and Kent placed ahead of us in the MAC meet last year. Both suffered some graduation losses. This Saturday, will be a chance for us to see how far we have come. We want to be able to mix it up with them. I think looking down the road, we want to make sure we are competing as best we can and that we have our top runners where they should be, in the upper echelon of the MAC. We don't have the same depth as some of the other schools in the MAC which hurts us, but I still think we are capable of finishing better than last year. If were to put all of our runners in the upper two-thirds of the MAC, that would be a significant improvement from last year. It would also give us something to build on for our young guys. They just need to keep plugging away from a training standpoint, and physically mature, and they will be able to have their day in the sun. One thing a lot of people don't realize is there is a big difference between an 18-year old runner and a 22-year old runner.
