The Wabash Cross Country team will be one of the favorites at this Saturday's North Coast Athletic Conference Championships at Wooster. The Little Giants are the defending champion after last year's victory which ended Allegheny's run of seven consecutive conference titles.
Allegheny is picked by the conference's coaches to reclaim its title. The Gators scored a total of 98 points and eight first-place votes in the coaches' pre-championship poll. Wabash received two first-place votes and a total of 92 points. That difference has not deterred the feisty Little Giants.
“Our mindset is 'We're going to win,'” Head Coach Roger Busch said. “They (Allegheny) beat us pretty soundly two weekends ago, but I think we have a much better chance of beating them in a 10-team setting.”
Only five of 12 runners will score for each school. The small amount of schools competing (10) places a higher importance on teams' depth, which is a strength of the Little Giants.
“We have a lot more depth than any team in the conference,” Busch said. “Allegheny has a distinguished front runner to where we are very competitive with their two and three runners. They also have a couple of other really solid runners, including a top freshman in the country.”
Senior
Jake Waterman acknowledged the youth of this year's squad.
“We've often been criticized for being young,” he said. “Naturally, young teams will have inexperience. I definitely think my role is not just to get points but to also show the younger guys how to get ready for a race.”
Kevin McCarthy,
Brian David,
Kenny Farris, and Donovan White left big spikes to fill when they graduated. A handful of guys have stepped up this year to replace the duo. The 2011 Newcomer of the Year Award winner
Billy McManus has continued success in his second year. McManus just missed earning a spot on the All-NCAC team after finishing 22nd a tthe 2011 event. The 2010 winner of the Newcomer Award,
Jake Ponton, has also had a strong season. However, Waterman has made the biggest strides from last year to now.
“He's decided he can be a better cross country runner than he's chosen to be in the past,” Busch said. “He's really bought in to maximizing his running capacity.”
Waterman agreed with his coach.
“The fact that it's my senior year has definitely made me take cross country more seriously,” Waterman said. “I used to view cross country as the offseason for track but now I realize my time here is short and it's my last year to run.”
The 2012 national champion in the outdoor 800-meter race and two-time national runner-up in the indoor 800, Waterman has run under pressure before. The team will lean on his experience and leadership.
“The race is 25-27 minutes long so it's a lot of time to over-think how you're feeling and talk yourself out of doing well,” Waterman explained. “The big thing with the young guys is learning how to manage that which comes with time and reinforcement.”
Despite Waterman's faster times, the focus is still on the team.
Nick Boyce,
Dalton Boyer,
Shane Hoerbert, and
Daniel Hoover are other runners who may play an important role in deciding the team's fate at conference. Boyer finished ninth at last year's race to earn All-NCAC honors.
“We have to understand the dynamics of the race as it unfolds,” Busch explained. “If there are so many Allegheny runners in front of our five, six, and seven runners, our guys need to understand that they need to run with maximum effort to beat them. That is paramount to us winning. We need to put our seven runners in front of their front five.”
Despite finishing two spots behind the Gators at Oberlin College, Waterman is still optimistic about the team's chances.
“Our team is a team that gets up for big meets and we're definitely a late-season team.”
The pressure will be on the inexperienced Little Giants, Saturday, to step up in the clutch again.
2012 NCAC Cross Country Pre-Championships Poll (pdf)
2012 NCAC Cross Country Championships Web Site (link)
