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The University of Utah Athletics
2015 Cross Country Preview
8/31/2015 12:00 AM | Cross Country
Aug. 31, 2015
Coming off a successful 2014 campaign, the Utah cross country team heads into its fifth season as a member of the Pac-12 Conference with high expectations. The Utes return four of their top five runners from the 2014 season as head coach Kyle Kepler enters his 11th year at the helm.
"Experience is hard to gain," Kepler explained. "You have to earn it and have kids that are good enough at a young enough age to break through. We are fortunate to have that going for us. The question is, how much have they grown in that year? What did they get out of last year? I think it is invaluable, but at the same time we are still going to be young by the standards of some of the other teams. We have some growing to do and I think that we have room to grow. That is the most important thing. We still have room to grow. It is not like experience solves everything and that is our plateau. What we need to do is take what we learned last year, move forward and see if we can make another big leap."
Leading the pack of returning runners is sophomore Sarah Feeny. Feeny led Utah at the Pac-12 Championships (41st) and at the NCAA Regional Championships (32nd), just missing qualifying for the national meet. She also represented the United States this summer in the Pan American Junior Championships, where she finished third in the 1,500. With a year of Pac-12 experience under her belt, Feeny is ready to assume a leadership role and be the spark the Utes need to establish themselves as legitimate contenders in the nation's premiere cross country conference.
"Sarah had issues with iron last year, but I think that we have got that solved," Kepler said. "Her iron is up and she is feeling good, but we are not going to see her until October because of the long track season she had. That is something that we planned for and were ready for it. Anytime you have a chance to represent your country, you take it. We are going to continue to give her some time to continue to do her summer training - we are just a month later than usual. The fact that she raced so long into the summer is not anything that we are too worried about. Competing at the level that she competes at, she probably doesn't need some of the early season races. They are not as much of a requirement for her. It might take one or two races for her to get into great race shape, but other than that I feel very confident that she will be ready to go when we need her to at the end of the season."
Following closely in Feeny's footsteps will be junior Jessica Sams and sophomore Shaylen Crook. Sams finished the 2014 cross country season with arguably two of the best performances of her collegiate career, finishing 53rd at the Pac-12 Championships and 37th at the NCAA Regional Championships. Crook recorded an impressive freshmen season, finishing sixth at the Nevada Twilight Classic and 44th at the Washington Invitational with a personal-best time of 21:18.
The addition of senior transfer Jocelyn Todd from Iowa will also help bolster the 2015 lineup. Todd comes to Utah with one year of eligibility. A three-time cross country Academic All-Big Ten selection, Todd recorded her best Big 10 Cross Country Championships finish in 2014, where she crossed the line in 72nd. Working towards her PHD in biomedical engineering, Kepler will look to Todd to not only be a leader on the track, but in the classroom as well.
"Jocelyn doesn't have to do anything special in the classroom," Kepler stated. "When you are walking into our biomedical engineering program as a PHD student, that says enough in itself. She will bring more experience and some different ideas to the table. Whether we choose to use them or not is a whole other story because we are an altitude school and Iowa was definitely not. She is still someone who has been through the rigors of collegiate cross country and distance running in general. She doesn't have to try too hard. I think it is just a matter of slipping in a note here and there and making sure one of our younger kids don't lose their confidence if something doesn't go quite right or a practice isn't perfect. Hopefully, she will be able to relay her experience to our younger runners."
After redshirting the entire 2014 season, senior Susannah Hurst returns to help make an immediate impact in her final cross country campaign as a Ute. In 2013, Hurst finished 19th at the NCAA Regional Championships.
"She has looked really good, in terms of the summer training," Kepler said of Hurst. "She has her mile times up high again, but when you haven't raced for a year it is always interesting. We will get her some early races to get her back into that mode, but she looks good and she looks fit. We certainly like to think that she will be in our scoring five and will be a big difference maker for us in her final year. "
Other runners returning include senior Andrea Chavez, who finished in the top 50 in the Pac-12 and the NCAA Regional Championships in 2013. Sophomore Hannah McInturff competed at the NCAA Regional Championships for the Utes last year. Junior Makenzie Clark, junior Giselle Slotboom, junior Dana Snell, sophomore Dakota Grossman, sophomore Becky Sarmiento, and sophomore Sadie Wassum also have experience under their belts for the Utes. Senior Kate Stringfellow is returning following a two-year LDS church mission while freshman Claire MacMillan redshirted in her first season in 2014.
The 2015 freshman class is once again saturated with talent as the Utes add five skilled student-athletes. Hannah Allred, Caitlin Faust, Millika Holbrook, Lauren Roberts and Megan Spehar will add more depth to the already talented Ute roster. Highlighting this freshmen group will be Faust, who won the Georgia State 4A championships in the 800 and finished third in the state at the 2014 cross country championships.
"Every freshmen class is a little bit different," Kepler explained. "I think that Caitlin Faust is a little more experienced on the track, but I think that there is enough talent there that we could see her break into that group that gives us some depth. We are not going to count on her to be one, two or three necessarily, but if it happened I wouldn't be totally shocked. Like I said, she is really good on the track and we will expect a little bit more from her there. In cross country, she might need a season to figure things out at this level. Hannah Allred is another product of Ogden High for us. We now have a sophomore, a junior and a freshman from Ogden High. They have been good to us with the kids that they have produced. Hannah has a little bit of a hip injury issue right now that we are trying to get solved. Beyond that, she had a solid high school career with very similar times to what Jessica Sams put up in high school. If she can have the same gradual increase in performance and development that Jess has had, we will be very happy. We might be a year away from her really making a dent in terms of our scoring five, or even our top seven. We certainly don't want to put pressure on those guys, but the opportunity is there if they want to take it."
The Utes open their season at the Utah State Open on Sept. 5 in Logan, Utah. Utah hosts its home meet on Sept. 11 at Murray Park, with the men's 6-km beginning at 3:00, followed by the women's 4-km. The Pac-12 Championships take place Oct. 30 in Colfax, Wash., followed by the NCAA Regional Championships on Nov. 13 in Albuquerque, N.M., and the NCAA Championships on Nov. 21 in Louisville, Ky.
"Our ultimate goal is to qualify a full team for the NCAA Championships," Kepler said. "I think that we are in a place with our program now where that is going to become the goal every year. We haven't done it yet, but I think we are inching our way there. In the Pac-12 we want to finish in the top half. If your team is in the top half in the league, you are going to have a really good chance to make it to the NCAA meet. Ninth was disappointing a year ago, but I think that if we train well and can stay healthy, that will be our best road to a successful season."
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