Northeastern’s men’s and women’s Cross-Country teams opened the 2003-04 season a few weeks back looking to improve upon disappointing seasons in the previous year. Both teams placed eighth in the America East Championships in 2002, but with top runners like Jon Litchfield and Amber Cullen returning, the running Huskies are looking to improve upon that mark this year, as well as make a strong showing at the New England Championships Oct. 26.
The men’s side opened the 2003 campaign with an impressive showing at the Central Connecticut State Invitational on Sept. 6, taking fourth place. Litchfield paced the Huskies with a 10th place finish in a field of 79. But the team struggled in the following meet, losing to both Boston University and Colgate University.
Coach Sherman Hart maintains a positive outlook in the early stages of the season.
“We are right on schedule to improve as a team,” he said. “We’ve only been practicing for two weeks now but we’re continuing to get better.”
With the men’s team having only two seniors and featuring many freshmen and sophomores, Hart looks for the team to continue to make great strides as the season progresses.
“The transition for men from high school running to college running is much harder than it is for women. Men have to go from a 3.1 mile in high school to a 5 mile in college, so that transition is difficult at first,” he said. “The key for us is to stay together and keep doing what we’re doing and we’ll be fine.”
Litchfield, NU’s most consistent runner this year, agreed that the team must stay together and continue to improve as the season progresses.
“Running is a continuing build-up from the beginning,” he said. “You start at the bottom of the mountain and work to try and get to the top. Hopefully, by New Englands [Championship], we’ll be at the top of the mountain.”
With the New England Championships close to a month away, Hart expects the men’s side to run well, and looks to some young runners to turn in strong performances.
“Tom Pratt is an example of a good championship runner, so I expect that he’ll run well,” Hart said. “Also, I’m impressed with Tim Chan. He’s only a freshman and he’s made the transition to the five mile and ran well.”
The women’s side opened their season with an impressive showing at the Central Connecticut State Invitational with a third place finish. Amber Cullen paced the Huskies with a fourth place finish. The women continued to run well by tying cross-town rival Boston University in their following meet. The BU women were America East Champions in 2002 and placed sixth in last year’s New England Championships. The Husky women impressed many with that finish, including their coach.
“I’m very impressed with how the women are doing so far. They’re running particularly well,” Hart said.
Hart was also impressed with Amber Cullen, one of NU’s top runners last year as a sophomore who continues to improve in her junior year.
“Amber is a year wiser now and understands that she needs to stay within the program,” Hart said. “We (the coaching staff) have worked to not allow her to over-distance herself. It’s improved her running much more.”
It will take a team effort in the end, however, if the NU women want to keep riding their hot streak all the way into October at the New England Championships.
In the most recent New England Cross Country poll, the women’s team fell to no. 18 with 16 points, while the men finished 35th with a single point.
Providence College took the top spot in both polls, garnering 300 points in the women’s poll and 225 in the men’s.
Friday both the men and the women head to the Quinnipiac Invitational. The race begins at 3:30 p.m.
