The Sacramento State men’s and women’s cross-country teams enter 2009 looking to maintain the Hornets’ success that head coach Kathleen Raske and assistant coach Scott Abbott have established in the last few years.

 

“Last year our women were second in the Big Sky Conference. I would definitely like to see them stay there in the top three,” Abbott said.

 

With 11 freshmen on the men’s team, the main concern for Raske is their lack of experience.

 

“Most of our men’s team are freshmen and sophomores with a couple of veterans mixed in there. We held out most of our veteran athletes last weekend at the USF Invitational,” she said. “On the men’s side in particular, the team got caught in the field so the result was not really indicative because they were very conservative.”

 

Raske felt this weekend Hornet Jamboree was a better determinate as to where Sac State stands individually and as a whole.

 

“This is the weekend we (got) to really see everybody in action for the first time.” She said.

 

The men finished second and the women finished in third on Saturday’s Hornet Jamboree.

 

“This weekend (was) our first true opportunity to get them into their racing, so it is a very exciting time for us as coaches to be able to see for the first time where they are at,” Raske said.

 

The amount of youth on the cross-country team works well for the Hornets’ coaching staff.

 

“We do have a lot of younger runners that we are relying on with the men’s and the women’s side, and that’s always a concern in terms of lack of experience,” Abbott said.

 

Raske and Abbott are trying to provide as much competitive experience to the team as possible, especially for the freshmen, with the hopes that it gets them to a place that they eventually need to be: future team leaders.

 

“The USF Invite was a chance for the newcomers to shake off the jitters of competing at the college level, and we are trying to give the freshmen extra competitive opportunities,” Abbott said.

 

The men placed fourth and the women finished seventh at the USF Invite on Sept. 5.

 

Even though the Hornets are young, there are coaches around the country who feel that Sac State’s inexperience will not hurt them down the road.

 

“Beginning the season playing the freshmen is a pretty standard way to open the season up. They held out a lot of their top athletes and just ran some young people for experience,” said Santa Clara assistant coach M. Felipe Montoro.

 

Abbott chooses not to set goals for the team, but rather leaves it up to the athletes to both decide and conquer goals themselves.

 

“There are not any specific goals I have for the team. I left the team goals up to the team themselves; you know, let them decide what they want to accomplish,” Abbott said.

 

Kristina Holtz hopes to be one of the leaders on the women’s team. The junior is a veteran on Sac State’s cross-country team. Holtz has experienced a lot in her time with Sac State, and she is excited about Sac State’s prospects for the season.

 

“This is the best team I have seen since I have been at Sac State, and I have been on the team since I was a freshman,” Holtz said. “Each year, the team just gets better and better, and it is so early in the season and we are already doing well, so I am excited to see what the future holds.”

 

The Hornets are excited that the season got off to a pretty good start, but with so many new freshmen on the team it is too early in the season to define Sac State’s strengths and weaknesses.

 

“We have to get a team race in and we will work from there. From there we can say ‘ok, this person needs to work here and this person is struggling over there’ and we will be able to work on those problems and get them through it,” said senior Scott Grose.

 

Sac State’s leaders, like Grose and Holtz, are proud of what the freshmen have accomplished already.

 

“The freshmen did pretty well at the USF Invite. For a freshman to go from 5,000 meters to 8,000 meters is a big jump,” Grose said. “Overall, we did well; some did better than others, but that is just how it is. Some are better early in the game, while some get better later in the year.”

 

Poetiic Reid can be reached at [email protected]