2010 Lumberjack Cross Country Preview
8/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Aug. 30, 2010
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - With six of the seven runners who took the line at last year's NCAA Regional Championships returning, the Lumberjack cross country team has a great deal of experience heading into the 2010 season. And in distance competition, experience typically goes hand-in-hand with another desirable trait - fitness.
"We're pretty excited about the amount of race experience we have going into this season," SFA head cross country coach Lou Snelling said. "This is the most experienced team I've had in probably four years.
"Along with that, because we are a little bit older as a team, fitness-wise, we're really getting to some exciting places. With some of the younger guys having developed over the last couple years, they're now athletes that we think will be very competitive at conference and at regionals."
Mitch Ownbey, Dennis Yeats, Harmon McClanahan, Logan Smart, Xavier Rodriguez and Adam Saloom are back after helping SFA to a fifth-place finish in last year's NCAA South Central Regional Championships. The group of returners includes four of the five scoring runners from that performance, which was the Lumberjacks' best since finishing fourth in 2006.
Ownbey and Yeats stand out as the likely leaders of the pack this season. Both are in their fourth year on the squad, Ownbey as a redshirt junior and Yeats as a true senior. The duo has combined for three All-Southland Conference honors in cross country over the last three years.
Ownbey has taken All-Southland honors at each of the last two conference championship meets and was an All-Region honoree last fall, when he barely missed qualifying for the national championships. Including his accomplishments on the track, Ownbey has recorded six career all-conference honors and two league titles.
"Mitch will be the guy that we look to to lead us on race day," Snelling said. "He had a very solid season last year. He's got good natural ability and leadership skills and every year he's doing a little bit more in his role as a team leader."
Yeats has been a contributor for the Lumberjacks since his true freshman campaign in 2007. That fall he led the team at both the conference and regional championships. The following year, he was SFA's top runner in four of its five races, including a seventh-place finish at the league championships to earn all-conference. In 2009, Yeats just missed an All-SLC performance with his 12th-place finish.
"Dennis is now in his fourth year," Snelling said. "He's got a ton of experience. He's in a situation where he can have a very successful year. ... He does a really good job with the training. He just has to continue to stay consistent with his training. After that, it's just a matter of stepping up on race day and putting it all together."
The other four returners consist of a trio of third-year juniors - McClanahan, Rodriguez and Saloom - and Smart, a redshirt junior.
"Those are guys who have all, at different points, had some success for us," Snelling said.
McClanahan was the fourth Lumberjack to cross the line at last year's regional championships. He was among SFA's scoring runners in three races as a rookie and just missed all-conference honors in the steeplechase at the 2010 SLC Outdoors.
Rodriguez scored points in three races at the Outdoor Championships. He narrowly missed all-conference accolades with a fourth-place finish in the 10,000 meters. Rodriguez also finished sixth in the 5,000 meters and seventh in the steeplechase. He was SFA's No. 4 runner at the 2009 Southland Cross Country Championships.
Saloom is coming off a strong spring campaign that saw him take all-conference honors with a third-place finish in the steeplechase at the Southland Outdoor Championships. He just missed all-league honors at the indoor meet, finishing fourth in the 3,000 meters.
Smart was the sixth SFA runner to finish at conference, then stepped up into the five spot at the regional meet last season.
"Those guys are going into their third year of competition," Snelling said. "They're more experienced, stronger, more mature. They have the chance to step up and be major players in the conference this year. ... Where those guys fall will definitely have a huge impact on where we go as a team this year."
The rest of the team is fleshed out by rookies and redshirt freshmen. Nathan Collier and Jonus Rodriguez both sat out the 2009-10 campaigns.
"Those guys got a redshirt year under their belts," Snelling said. "It's going to be interesting to see how much of an impact they can have this year."
Three true freshmen - Moses Luevano, Colby McCune and Ryan Tilotta - round out the roster.
"Typically, it's tough for true freshmen to step into a role where they'll contribute right away, but only time will tell," Snelling said. "There's definitely some talented guys in that group."
Luevano and McCune were teammates at Boerne Champion High School, where their team won state and national titles. Tilotta hails from Tomball, where he finished runner-up at the district track meet to the eventual Class 5A state champion in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters.
The Lumberjacks will begin their 2010 season Friday with the Lumberjack Opener at Pecan Park. Their schedule includes dates at Memphis and Florida State before the Southland Conference Championships, hosted this year by Lamar.
"We have the potential to be better this year," Snelling said. "It's just a matter of putting all the pieces together at the right time."
-- SFA --
