TicketsOct. 28, 2011
By Mario Cannon
This year's University of Cincinnati men and women cross country teams are different than past years. Both "expect to win" which is the attitude and motto they have for this season. Unfortunately, it's going to take much more than just expecting to win in order for both Bearcat teams to be successful at the BIG EAST Conference Championship this Saturday October 29th in Louisville, Ky. A plan is made and if it's carried out successfully the Bearcats in theory should do well and possibly be in contentions to win. This team has a quiet confidence, not to be mistaken for cockiness because they are still humble.
"Conference is always difficult because the BIG EAST is extremely good on the women and men's side," senior Eric Finan said optimistically. "We've done very well all the way leading up to Pre-Nationals. It was a needed shock to the system, preparing us to be ready for the BIG EAST."
The men's team has the best chance to win or place high in the BIG EAST against five teams that have been ranked this season. With the leadership of Finan is going to be the Bearcats first line of defense. He's personally has only lost to two people this season, both at the Pre-National meet, which he placed third in. Finan is also hoping to become the first BIG EAST cross country champion in the school's history.
Along with Finan, junior Oliver Book and sophomore Kevin Fink are the other two Bearcat standouts this season. Book has been the second top finisher this season. Fink has done a phenomenal job of stepping up and being the third best runner as a sophomore.
"Everyone has to run better than ever before," Coach Schnier said. "We've had a good top three (runners). Our numbers four and five (runners) have to be within five to ten places of our number three."
The team throughout the season has had solid finishes from those three, but they need more production from two others if they truly want to be contenders at the conference championship. Coach Schnier sites Chase Beckman and Tyler Ross as the two most likely to play the roll of the fourth and fifth top finishers.
The women's team is a different story because of its youth and constant maturation with each meet. The team's goal is to do better than last year when they placed ninth in the conference. In the words of Coach Schnier, "the goal is to be the best of the rest." That's a fair and reasonable goal seeing that they're facing seven ranked opponents and one of them is the former NCAA Championship team (Villanova) from a year ago.
"It hurts and helps," Coach Schnier said referring to being in the BIG EAST. "You always want to go out with the best competition. But, if the team is too good it can be discouraging."
As a team made up of primarily freshmen, many of these young ladies have never been to the BIG EAST meet and don't know what to expect other than great competition. Many of them are like freshmen Kaitlyn Meyer. Meyer said, "I am nervous and excited about the meet because it's my first one. I don't know much about how they did last year or the BIG EAST as a whole."
"Ignorance is bliss," freshmen Emily Clay said. "I'm excited about it. I don't know the pressures."
As a men's team ranked in seventh a year ago and currently coming into a BIG EAST conference with five teams ranked nationally, they're not concerned with the competition. It has been a very successful season after all. They were undefeated as a team for majority of the season, won their first All-Ohio Championship in a decade and have gained needed confidence to be contenders in the BIG EAST Conference this year. The team even has the lofty goal of qualifying for the NCAA Championship as a team, but first they're focused on the conference championship.
"This is the conference meet and we're not running in anything other than the conference meet," Coach Schnier said.
This simply means even if they don't appear to have even the slightest chance of winning, they still compete as if they're going to and believe they will. The logic behind it is that as long as each athlete competes with that attitude they'll always do their best, so even if they don't win they can be proud of themselves.
"We go into every meet with the attitude to expect to win even if there's no evidence of it," Coach Schnier said.