By Susan Sobey, Sports Contributor
The cross-country teams travel to Antigonish this weekend for the AUS championships. Both the men’s and women’s teams have been victorious in all conference meets so far this year.
On the women’s side, the Tigers have fielded their strongest team in years, led by Caroline Schlosser, Gina Stewart, and Cara Groves. The team last won the AUS title in 2004, when the team went on to win the CIS national championships.
Team captain Schlosser is determined to end her cross country career with a bang. In her five years with the Tigers, Schlosser says this team has both the strongest team bond and running capabilities. While a sport like cross country does require a focus on your individual performance, it’s done with team goals in mind.
Schlosser is feeling stronger than ever and would love to end her university career with her first individual AUS title. The 2009 AUS silver medalist has a team-first attitude: “A win is a win, but if it’s a loss to a teammate, that’s okay,” Schlosser says.
Fourth year veteran and men’s captain Dan Gorman is feeling “pretty good” heading into the AUS championships.
Gorman, who was eighth at last year’s championships, is usually more focused on his track and field season; however, this year he has taken cross country more seriously.
So far this year he has earned three Dalhousie athlete-of-the-week honours, and has played a large role leading his team into AUS championships. Gorman says the success of the team this season isn’t just due to his personal improvements. Both Josh Coyle and Bruce Russell have shown great improvements this season.
Head coach Heather Hennigar says this team-first direction has largely been the result of a change in focus this year to emphasize the “pure enjoyment of running and the team component of cross-country.”
“This race will be the first step for a lot of the rookies in their career,” says Gorman. “It’s going to be a close race between the two schools, and this is the chance for these young guys to show the AUS and themselves they have the ability to run really good races and compete.”
Will competing on their home course give St.FX an advantage? Not according to Gorman. “We have better hills, better trails, and a better overall training facility. So even though we won’t have home course advantage, we can tackle anything their course throws at us.”
Both teams have been training hard for the AUS championships, but admit they are looking beyond this meet to the CIS nationals.
“AUS is huge, but we’re really looking at the bigger picture,” Schlosser says.
From the coach’s perspective, she still knows her athletes are going to have to run hard to win the AUS titles and earn a berth at CIS.
“We have a level of competition in the conference that means we need to be at our best and execute on the day,” Hennigar said. “I think both teams can go into the AUS championships confident, but not complacent.”
“All the work has been done,” Gorman says. “Now we just need to step up to the line and go after it.”
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