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Consistency is the hallmark of FHSU's 2008 cross country squad
8/27/2008
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
Cross-country is a sport where the roster is generally in constant flux every fall.
The Fort Hays State University 2008 squad, though, is unique.
"I am more excited about this season than I have been about the previous three, mostly because we have so many returnees coming back," men's and women's head coach Jason McCullough said. "Most of the time you have a lot of turnover in these types of sports because there is not a lot of scholarship, but we had every single runner return."
Those returning runners form possibly the best woman's cross-country team in 12 years. On the men's side, the Tigers could yield Fort Hays' first Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association title in any sport.
"I am really excited about this team for the girls and for the guys," McCullough said.
The men's team returns several talented runners and a couple athletes who redshirted the 2007 season. The squad, which finished fourth last fall, was picked sixth in the preseason poll.
McCullough, though, believes the team is better than its ranking and said "it's a good possibility" they can get a team into the top three in conference and at regionals and qualify for nationals.
"Definitely should be in the top three if everyone is healthy," he said. "We are not going to limit ourselves to that. If everyone runs well and is aggressive and believes in themselves there is that outside shot that we could win a conference title."
The team starts with the Yoder brothers, Dan and Aaron. Dan was a team-best fourth at the MIAA meet in 2007 and led the team at the South Central Regional conference championships. He was named co-MVP for the second straight season.
Aaron redshirted last fall, but won two meets, the Colby Trojan Invitational and the Tabor College Invitational as an unattached runner. He also led the Tigers at the Southern Stampede and the FHSU Tiger Invitational. Junior Jay Lindal and senior Elias Diaz also return after redshirting.
"We could have at any given meet, five different top runners," McCullough said. "We have a lot of guys with the opportunity to qualify for nationals and be an All-American."
The women's team, ranked fifth in the eight-team conference in the coaches' poll, is led by its senior trio in Jackie Jamison, a Quinter native, Nikki Knowles and Ashlee Orr and junior Ali Mishler.
"We have a good group of four girls that really stood out last year," McCullough said.
That quartet finished the 2007 season ranked third in the conference and 24th in the country. According to McCullough, it was the first time a women's team had been ranked at the end of the season since 1997. This year, they'll try to become the first women's team to qualify as a team since 1996.
"I think this is probably the most talented team that we have had," McCullough said. "It just depends on one, how hard they worked over the summer and two, if they can stay healthy and work together as a team."
Orr was the second-best 10-kilometer runner in the MIAA during track season and earned all-MIAA honorable mention honors at the conference meet last fall.
Mishler led the team at conference with a 17th place finish, also good for honorable mention. Knowles improved her personal best in the 5-kilometers by over a minute.
"(Ashlee) has just been improving leaps and bounds over the last year and a half. She definitely should be one of the top three or four runners in the conference," McCullough said. "Ali has made big improvements the last two years and so has Nikki and Jackie so I think all four of them have an opportunity to be all-conference and definitely top 20."
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| 2/18 | SW Baptist | L 66-53 | |
| 12/1 | Oklahoma - Panhandle | L 66-60 (OT) | |