Capital Crusaders 2008

One of the biggest strengths of the Capital University Cross Country program in the 2007 season was the relative youth of the entire program. Going into the season there were only two runners on both the male and female team and with a change in the coach and a program overhaul, there was little the four returning runners were expecting. The season saw the arrival of four male freshman (Rhoad, Griffith, Link and Wirrig) and female freshman (Walker, Melick, Palmer and Vehre) along with upperclassmen who competed for the first time that season (Eversole, Miceli, Clayborn, Baker, Baxter, Williams, and Reeves). On a team that went into the 2007 with only four known runners, it was exciting to see such an expansion of runners on the team.

This is the mentality that the coaching staff enters the 2008 season with, building and growing a team that has been just to small to compete in recent years. Out of a team that had between 7-9 runners competing on a regular basis, there should be at least five runners returning to the team this fall (Rhoad, Eversole, Wirrig, Link and Miceli).

Going into this year, the team is most optimistic it's been the past four years. Despite losing Woods and Keppler to graduation and Griffith to transferring, the team still has an extremely strong outlook on the season.

Some early season predictions, I see Joel Eversole and Emerson Rhoad having strong seasons and making up for the losses of three contributing runners in the offseason. Further, I think Nate Wirrig and Joe Miceli will also have strong seasons building upon what they accomplished in the previous season. Right now my prediction is that Joel and Emerson should see some time in the low 28s and high 27s maybe slipping even lower with Nate going to the mid 28s for the bulk of his races. Going into the year, I would like to see both Miceli and Link going into the 29s to round out a team without knowing anything about our current talent heading into the team this year. With that we can use the freshman to build around an already strong core.

Capital University distance running looks like it may compete for the first time in recent years and that should provide both the runners and alumnus with a great deal of excitement going into the season.