Cross Country season recap

The 2011 cross country season has come to an end with many improvements shown but no advancements to the championships. The "young" look of the teams, however, provides room for more improvement for next season.

By the end of the season, the women's team consisted of five runners, four being freshmen. The men's team consisted of nine runners with only one graduating, Senior Donald Rightenour.

The men's team proved successful in the season opener with a second-place rank at the Midwestern State University Stampede. They hit a stumbling block in the middle of the season placing 23rd out of 29 at the Oklahoma State University Cowboy Jamboree, a much more difficult challenge due to the volume of teams entering. They bounced back just one week later at the Southern Arkansas Lois Davis Invitational placing first. In one of their earlier meets, which took place on Oct. 22 at the Lone Star Conference Championships, the men's team ended up with a third-place ranking, which ties with the best Lion performance for the conference meet.

As for the women's team, their best placing was at the Southern Arkansas Lois Davis Invitational where they finished third. Freshman Brooke Farris finished the best out of the Lions with a time of 20:12 at that invitational. They failed to have a team standing in three of their meets because too few girls participated in running due to illnesses or other circumstances.

The men's and women's team took a weekend trip to Joplin, Missouri on Sept. 17 for the Missouri Southern Stampede only to arrive and find out the meet was cancelled. They had to turn back around without competing.

The teams wrapped up the season at the 2011 NCAA South Central Regional Championships. Brooke Farris came out ahead for the female Lion runners at 117th place with a time of 24:50.70 for the 6k. Isaac Chelimo came in 51st place as the leading Lion male runner with a time of 33:21.60 for the 10k.  Overall, the men placed 14th out of 19 teams, and the women were unable to rank with only four runners.  

"You can't just pick one race and define your whole season," coach of the men's team Darren Schneider said. "With our men's program, we had a really good year."

Schneider said that he believes having eight out of the nine men runners returning next year will make a difference for them competitively.

"We're moving from a relatively young team to a veteran group," Schneider said.

Isaac Chelimo, the top runner for the Lion men's team, was happy with his accomplishment and said it has given him motivation to work harder so that he can do even better next Fall. This December Chelimo even plans to take a trip to New Mexico, so he can train in higher altitude.

 "You have to have confidence," he said was the key to being a successful runner.

As this being his first year at A&M-Commerce, Chelimo was appreciative of his teammates.

 "We had high expectations of going to regionals," said Chelimo. "So that made us united."

Junior men's team runner Ross Hicks was also pleased with the motivation that his team possessed and continues to have for next year.

"We are set on continuing to move up in the conference standings, and fighting to win," Hicks said, "I believe we have the group and the talent to do it."

The coaches have already been working for recruitment for next season.

 "The first thing we are looking for is good people, next is their ability level and how much we believe they can improve in the system we train them in." Graduate Assistant coach JD Matsumura who assists with recruitment said.  "We send out recruiting letters from 100 to 1,000 possible recruits. We get questionnaires sent back from about 10 percent or so of those who we send out. From what we get back we start calling and narrow the field."

Schneider hopes to get in some good runners for the men and women's teams that can bring in competition within the team for next year.