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 By Carrie Chin/ STUDENT PUBLICATIONS |
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| With everybody back from the men's squad, head coach Alan Drosky hopes experience will help improve the team's conference finish. | |
After finishing seventh in the conference last year, the women's team looks to improve with the help of three red-shirted freshmen. Head coach Alan Drosky commented that these three girls, Nicole Campbell, Rachael Caruso, and Sara Pardue will each have a big impact on this year's team.
With the loss of two runners who competed in the top 5 last year (Linda Lisska and Floren Ansley), Coach Drosky hopes that these three girls will help fill in the gaps.
Solid returning upperclassmen include juniors Becky Megesi and Tina Frey. Both women had solid track seasons, with Megesi winning the mile at ACCs and Frey competing in the 3000m and 5000m races. Another upperclassman to watch for is Johnson. Johnson was the number four or five runner last year, and since she didn't run track last season (due to a stress fracture) she may be running in a higher spot this year due to an earlier start on summer training. Other noteworthy returnees who are capable of contributing points are sophomores Tonia Hanson and Kelly Johnston.
Two freshman who may also contribute points as top five runners are Eboni Crosby (Aurora, Colorado) and Amanda Woodall (Marietta, Georgia). Both girls have great potential, Drosky stated; Crosby has a 4:58 mile and was first in the 800m and third in the mile at the state championships, and Woodall was third at state in the 800m.
On the men's side, Coach Drosky is fortunate in that he is running with the same team as last year. No freshmen have joined the team, and no one has graduated, so Drosky hopes on finishing in fifth place or higher in the conference this year. (Last year's finish was seventh.) The men's team made tremendous improvements during the track season, and they trained strenuously this summer, running an average of 80 miles per week (for a ten week period).
Sophomore Phillip Gable, who ran in the number one spot last year, will lead this year's team with the help of junior Brad Mills and sophomore Joe Stegall. Gable and Mills were in the top 25 at the District competition last year, and Stegall wasn't far behind in 27th place. Drosky expects Gable to lead the team early on, considering his performance last year and considering the fact that he got an early start on summer training due to a track injury. Even though Gable is a step up on his competitors, both Mills and Stegall will likely be tough competition for Gable when it comes time for ACCs in November (due to their late start on training). Drosky commented that these three guys are the most solid runners on the men's team.
Comparing the men's team to the women's, the men's team has much greater depth. After the three top runners, Gable, Mills, and Stegall finish, the other two places are a toss-up on the men's team, whereas on the women's team, the top places are quite solidly established.
Betts has been a solid runner for the past two years, and he has often been in the top five. Also, sophomore Todd Gandee was in the top five a few races last year, so he may also be a point contributor. Other upperclassmen to watch for are seniors Brian Hetherington and Michael Niederhausen; both may be in the top four or five spots this year. Coach Drosky commented that the seniors on the team have been very solid and consistent, but the younger guys are presenting a great challenge to these upperclassmen.
Head coach Alan Drosky commented that both men's and women's teams are really fired up about gaining redemption this year, especially after finishing lower than they had expected to at last year's ACCs.
At the first meet of the year, Coach Drosky plans on a different strategy to help the athletes maintain their momentum though the final meets of the season. Coach Drosky felt like last year, the athletes ran too many races, too hard, and too intense, so that by the end of the season, the team's best athletes were run down (and couldn't perform at peak levels at ACCs). So this year, Drosky is using the first race as an opportunity for some of the athletes on the team to show how they have progressed this summer, but Drosky is not going to run his best runners at this meet. The first meet where both teams will run all of their athletes is at the Georgia State Invitational on September 19.