In the last five years, the Bulldogs have won three first-place titles at the Big East Championship. Photo by Darcy Leber.

DOROTHY LAKSHMANAMURTHY | ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR | dlakshmanamurthy@butler.edu 

Taking their first sprint into the season, the men’s and women’s cross country teams sent 15 runners — seven men and eight women — to the Mike Baumer Cross Country Classic on Sept. 5. 

Sophomore Kylie Cline led the women’s team with a 17:56.6 time and a sixth-place finish, while first-year Brendan Thomas won the men’s 5K with a time of 14:33.3. 

For this meet, head coach Matt Roe decided to send mostly sophomore runners who redshirted last season and first-years who are putting on the uniform for the first time.

“They are [all] really strong athletes,” Roe said. “I think they can successfully be competitive with other teams’ top groups because we have great depth. It’s an opportunity for them to get their feet wet and learn.” 

Even though he was not running, graduate runner Austin Gabay was excited to watch his teammates kick off the season.

“It’s great to see [my teammates] starting the season off on the right foot and getting things going for us,” Gabay said. “’Even early on, they have put in the work and it’s starting to pay off for them.”

At the end of last season, the women’s team finished fifth in the Big East Championships and 14th at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional. The men’s team finished second in the Big East, third at the NCAA Regional and 20th at the NCAA Championship.

Looking back at these end results, Gabay believes his team can push itself even further this season.

“This year we are coming back older, better and stronger,” Gabay said. “We are a lot more focused on the process and what we do in our everyday ins-and-outs and less focused on the end goal. ‘Process’ is like our keyword for the season because everyone does the 98% that it takes to get to this level. It’s just a matter of doing that extra one or 2% to push you to the top.”

The men’s team is in a more experienced position with graduate runners like Jesse Hamlin, Matthew Forrester and Gabay leading the Bulldog pack. The men’s squad also has redshirt junior William Zegarski who earned Second-Team All-American Honors, won the Big East Outdoor Track Championships in the 10K and received All-Big East Honors last season.

On the other hand, the women’s team features a younger bunch of runners. The team has only two upperclassmen: junior runner Mckenna Mazeski and senior runner Elsa Rusthoven. The squad is also missing sophomore and leading runner Hannah Moore, as she is out with an injury.

Roe views his coaching approach for the men’s and women’s teams to be different due to their contrasting experience levels.

“You coach younger athletes differently than you would coach an older athlete,” Roe said. “Certainly for the type of workouts you write and the volume of running, but there’s also a lot of lessons that need to be taught along the way. You’re trying to instill those coaching pieces to younger athletes so they can become somewhat self-sufficient, and with an older athlete, they need you less because you’ve already mentored them and taught them.”

Roe also notes that through coaching and learning, some runners become natural leaders for the younger athletes to look towards. Especially for the younger women’s team, Roe points to Moore as becoming one of those leaders and Moore finds herself taking on that role. 

“I think it’s all about leading by example and showing them how to do things,” Moore said. “I think it’s easy to just be like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go do this. Come along with me.’ We do that for [our first-years] in the training room, for workouts and stretching. They are malleable right now, so it’s important to really show them our routine.”

However, training for the runners began in the summer, which Gabay believes gave the team a better foundation to come into the season with.

“We stay connected [over the summer] by having meetings over Zoom and just talking,” Gabay said. “I also know a lot of the guys are from the area or some will stay here over the summer and have little groups that get to run and train together. But it is also nice to go home, do your own thing for a little bit, and come back with that feeling of renewal for a new year. You get to start over, be a year older and try to contribute as best you can.”

The men’s and women’s cross country teams continue to put in the work at practices as they look forward to the Gans Creek Classic on Sept. 26.