Country sight seeing

The cross country program at Texas A&M University-Commerce has both youth and experience. Newcomers on the men's and women's teams have A&M-Commerce fans looking forward to the season and returning stars prepare to exceed expectations.

Coach Rich Lawrence was very proud of the men's cross country fourth place finish last year, and he thinks that they can improve on that finish in 2008.

They face stiff competition from Lone Star Conference opponents, though. Abilene Christian has produced seventeen straight men's LSC titles.

The men's team returns all-conference runner Tyler Tyndell of Paris, as well as their third, fourth and fifth ranked runners. The signing of high school state champion Cody Hughes means that the men's team has that much more potential.

While Hughes hasn't raced at the collegiate level, "his times are very good, so we're interested to see how he does as a freshman," Lawrence said.

The women's team is looking to make long strides. Multiple incoming freshmen will join sophomore Katie Donovan.

"Our women's team is very young," Lawrence said. "I would like to see them improve on last season's finish."

This season he will focus on allowing them to compete and gain more experience.

No matter what improvements are made, A&M-Commerce fans can look forward to a good season. Considering both the amount of funding and scholarships at hand, as well as the difficulty of their conference, A&M-Commerce's cross country program has proven to be quite competitive.

While there are no meets on campus this year, A&M-Commerce hosted a conference meet last year.

"I would like to thank everyone who helped us put on the conference meet last year," Lawrence said. "It went tremendously. Both Jason Wicke and Danny Kambel were a great help."

A&M-Commerce's first cross country meet is Sept. 13 in Memphis, Tenn. The men's team consists of eight students and the women's of six.