The Clayton State University cross country teams will open their collegiate seasons this Saturday with cautious optimism. The women’s team will be looking to break a string of four consecutive third place finishes in the Peach Belt Conference, while the men’s team, coming off its first Peach Belt title, will be in rebuilding mode this season.

Both teams open up on Saturday, Aug. 26 at the North Georgia XC Challenge, hosted by North Georgia at Yahoola Park near Dahlonega. The women will race a 3K distance at 10:30 a.m. while the men will race a 5K distance at 11:15 a.m.

“Our women’s team will be fairly experienced, but our guys team will be young,” said veteran Laker head coach Mike Mead, who along with assistant coach Hugh Toro, embark on their 12^th seasons in guiding the Clayton State programs. “The women’s team has several veteran runners and we hope to be serious contenders for the conference title. Half our men’s team is made up of freshmen, so we want to bring them along steadily and not put a lot of pressure on them as they make the transition from high school to college.”

WOMEN’S PREVIEW

The Lakers will be solid in numbers that includes a balance of veteran talent and several newcomers to the sport of cross country. Leading the squad will be junior standout Allison Kreutzer (Lilburn, Ga.), a two-time All-Peach Belt Conference, All-South Region and Division II All-American who will be seeking her second conference title and a third trip to the NCAA Division II championships.

Kreutzer will receive solid contributions from senior returnees Cassandra Bolivar (Glendale, Ariz.) and Melissa Fernandez (Mesa, Ariz.). Bolivar, who has a best of 19:28 for 5K, ran 20:38 last season before an injury held her back late in the season. Fernandez has a personal best of 19:23 for 5K, but ran 21:29 last season. Also back for cross country is junior Katelyn Stache (Bolingbrook, Ill.) who ran on the squad her freshman year and ran one meet last season. Primarily a track athlete specializing in the 400m hurdles, Stache ran her best time of 20:57 in 2004.

The women’s team adds six newcomers, led by senior transfer Angela Cobb from Abbeyville, Ga. Cobb ran three seasons at Valdosta State University with a best of 18:20 for 5K cross country and ran consistently in the 19:45 range last year. The Lakers also have another promising transfer in Terrica Hamilton, a junior from Baton Rouge, La. who ran the past two seasons at the University of New Orleans. Hamilton ran 20:50 for 5K last season and has career-bests of 5:08 for 1600m and 2:16.80 in the 800m.

Relatively new to cross country is freshman Isabelle Ahanotu (Lithonia, Ga.), who ran track at Atlanta’s Stephenson High School, sophomore Elena Bondari from Chisinau, Moldova, freshman Titisha Cochran from Atlanta, and freshman Maria Larsen from Vordingborg, Denmark. Bondar and Larsen are also members of Laker women’s tennis team.

“Angela and Terrica make great additions to our team,” said Mead. “The rest of our newcomers are going to contribute as they learn to run cross country. I believe Maria will surprise a few folks, including herself, by the end of the season.”

MEN’S PREVIEW

The men's team returns only two runners off last season’s squad that won the Peach Belt Conference championship and made its first trip to the NCAA Championships placing 23^rd. Junior Peter Gajda (Mermaid Mist, Australia) and sophomore Billy Brown (Locust Grove, Ga.) are the lone returnees from the 2005 season. Gajda has a career-best of 27:00 for 8K while Brown ran 31:04 as a freshman last year. 

"We lost our top four guys from last year and we’ll be rebuilding our men’s squad this season,” said Mead. “Peter has the potential to lead our squad, while Billy has vastly improved and has put in the most summer miles of anyone on our men’s team.”

The Lakers add a junior and three freshmen to make up its six-man squad for this fall. Leading the list of newcomers is junior Nelson Lopez (Los Angles, Calif.), a transfer from Los Angeles Trade Tech, which won the 2005 California Community College men’s state title. Lopez has season-bests last year of 22:22 for four miles and 4:13 for 1500m and 16:40 for 5,00m on the track.

The freshmen will be led by Chris Ritchie (Douglasville, Ga.), who ran for an Alexander High School program that finished fifth at last year’s Class AAAA state meet.  He has run 16:59 for 5K while in track he has run 2:00 for 800m and 4:38 for 1600m. Another freshman is Travis Morris (Euharlee, Ga.), who ran at Woodland High School near Cartersville. Morris ran 17:30 for 5K cross country last season and has run 2:01 for 800m in track. The third freshman to the squad is David Taylor (Hiram, Ga.), who ran at Paulding County High School with bests of 2:01 for 800m and 50.3 for 400m.

“Nelson and Chris make fine additions to our program,” said Mead. “Travis and David are more track-oriented, but they’re going to benefit doing cross country. We just have to work steadily and stay injury-free. We’re going to lack the front-runner we’ve had the past few seasons, but these guys can still make an impact by season’s end.”

The Laker teams are scheduled to run a total of seven meets this season, including the conference (Oct. 21) and region (Nov. 4) meets. Following the Aug. 26 meet at North Georgia, the squads will travel to the Pre-Conference meet on Sept. 9 in Columbus, Ga. The following week, Sept. 16, the teams return to the Wingate Invitational near Charlotte, N.C. September 30 will find both teams competing at the Georgia Collegiate Championships in Macon, while October 7 will have the men’s team competing at the Georgia State University Invitational in Panthersville while the women compete at the Brooks XC Twilight meet in Memphis, Tenn. Anyone qualifying for the NCAA Division II National Championship meet will compete Nov. 18 in Pensacola, Fla.