Last season, the men’s and women’s cross country teams ended on a high note, with senior Emma D’Ambro earning All-Region honors at the end of the season. The team lost a few seniors this year, including Gina Micaroni, who had been a constant leader for the past four years earning All-Region honors twice throughout her career. . The team looks to build off of what they have already accomplished and hope to continue to consistently place at meets this season.
Regarding last year’s season, head coach Scott Love, who is entering into his second season, stated, “I was generally pleased with the progress we made last season. Every one of our runners improved their times. We also made progress with consistency in training. Competing in the NE-10 without a track program is very difficult because we are limited in our training opportunities during the rest of the year while the top competitive schools are competing in indoor and outdoor track.”
“We need to be able to continue training as a team all year round to step up to be a top competitive program in the NE-10 as well as nationally,” he added. “Currently, top recruits who are interested in Le Moyne are not willing to commit to compete for Le Moyne because they do not have an opportunity to compete in indoor and outdoor track.”
To succeed this season, the team is continuing to focus on improving their overall individual performance at each meet.
“Last year, our theme was ‘Practice with Purpose.’ We need to concentrate on making the most of the opportunities practices provide us to improve our skills,” Love said. “If everyone improves together everyday, we will improve our team performance. We cannot control what other teams do, but we can control what we do everyday and work towards excellence.”
The off-season training included the main principles the team focuses on: consistency and practice.
“We have been working on consistency, making sure we workout a minimum of an hour a day everyday, so that the women can work at a base level of fifty miles a week or more and the men work at a base level of seventy miles a week or more all year,” Love also noted.
The men’s team has one incoming freshman recruit, Adam Zinger, while the women’s team is taking on four new freshmen: Katherine Ward, Amanda Sacca, Rachel Lawler and Dominique Laplant.
“I think we have a very good group of student-athletes who are committed to working hard together,” said Love.
The two biggest meets this year are the NE-10 Championships and the NCAA Regional meet.
“This year, we are hosting the NE-10 meet on October 20 at Jamesville Beach, so we would love to have a very large and vocal contingent of students, alumni, and faculty to cheer us on,” he said. “We will also be going to the Slippery Rock Invitational in Slippery Rock, PA and the Riverhawk Invitational in Nashua, N.H. – two meets that will allow us to compete against many of the best Division II programs in the Northeast.”
Following their usual practice regime, the men’s and women’s cross country teams will no doubt have success in the upcoming season. The first meet of the season is this upcoming Saturday, Sept. 8 at the Hamilton Short Course Invitational at noon.
