The Daily OrangeWith standout season, SU cross country sets goals higher
By Philip George
Posted: 11/19/09, 1:13 AM EST Section: Sports
From the first day of workouts, Katie Hursey noticed that her fellow runners were "on a whole other level" than they were a season ago.
Pat Dupont noticed the same thing on the men's team. A group riddled with injuries and illnesses last year was finally healthy.
Each could tell that their respective teams had improved. The same bodies were there, just a year older, a year wiser, a year more experienced. But nobody predicted that a top-ten finish would be attainable.
"The goals have changed a little bit," Chris Fox, Syracuse cross country head coach, said. "First, we just wanted to get to Nationals. Then we started to get better and figured maybe we can be top-15."
After both Fox's men's and women's teams finished first at the NCAA Northeast Regionals on Saturday, the men sit at No.9 in the nation, their highest ranking in school history, and the women at No. 12.
With the NCAA Championships looming, that pair of victories primes the Orange for a chance to crack the top 10, a statistic with significance to its members.
"I think it gets you respect and makes you more well known," said Hursey. "In the past, teams haven't thought of us. We hadn't qualified for Nationals (and when we did) last year, we were one of the bottom teams. Being Top 10, you're not just a team that qualified for Nationals. You're a team that's significant at Nationals."
Significance hasn't been a word tossed around in context with Syracuse this season, with many teams and coaches overlooking it as a contender despite its high finishes.
Even Fox and his team didn't realize what they had until a month into the season.
"We went to Wisconsin and won fairly easily against traditional powerhouse teams," Fox said of the men's team. "We would have been happy to have been third there but we won and that kind of sent us on our way. That changed everything.
"On the women's side, we got second without running well against traditional powerhouses. Maybe everybody else thought we ran well, but we knew we were better than what we ran."
Pat Dupont noticed the same thing on the men's team. A group riddled with injuries and illnesses last year was finally healthy.
Each could tell that their respective teams had improved. The same bodies were there, just a year older, a year wiser, a year more experienced. But nobody predicted that a top-ten finish would be attainable.
"The goals have changed a little bit," Chris Fox, Syracuse cross country head coach, said. "First, we just wanted to get to Nationals. Then we started to get better and figured maybe we can be top-15."
After both Fox's men's and women's teams finished first at the NCAA Northeast Regionals on Saturday, the men sit at No.9 in the nation, their highest ranking in school history, and the women at No. 12.
With the NCAA Championships looming, that pair of victories primes the Orange for a chance to crack the top 10, a statistic with significance to its members.
"I think it gets you respect and makes you more well known," said Hursey. "In the past, teams haven't thought of us. We hadn't qualified for Nationals (and when we did) last year, we were one of the bottom teams. Being Top 10, you're not just a team that qualified for Nationals. You're a team that's significant at Nationals."
Significance hasn't been a word tossed around in context with Syracuse this season, with many teams and coaches overlooking it as a contender despite its high finishes.
Even Fox and his team didn't realize what they had until a month into the season.
"We went to Wisconsin and won fairly easily against traditional powerhouse teams," Fox said of the men's team. "We would have been happy to have been third there but we won and that kind of sent us on our way. That changed everything.
"On the women's side, we got second without running well against traditional powerhouses. Maybe everybody else thought we ran well, but we knew we were better than what we ran."
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