It is pretty remarkable the changes and progress that the cross country program has gone through in the past 14 years. A program that struggled to put together a scoring team of five in the first couple of years to one that has now seen the women’s team qualify for the national championships for eight consecutive years and a men’s team that has qualified for nationals as a team for three consecutive years and had a team or individuals qualify for six straight years. Along with this, both teams have held the Frontier Conference titles since the inception of the sport in the conference two years ago.

Along with the team accolades come individual honors including 31 All-Americans the past 10 years – an average of more than three All-Americans per year, and more all-conference and all-region runners than can be counted.

Veteran LCSC coach Mike Collins says this season should continue with much of the same in level of performance for both the men’s and women’s teams. With a great core of returning student-athletes and a large number of new runners, the teams look to continue their tradition of excellence.

The women’s team enters this year after having finished 14^th at last year’s national championships. From the runners who competed at nationals, there is only one who will be missing and that is senior Katja Loevslett, who finished as the No. 5 LCSC runner at the national meet. Katja graduated last spring and is now attending graduate school.

“Missing only one runner indicates that the depth on this year’s team should be very good,” Collins says. “Not only do we have a large number of returning runners, but a crew of incoming freshmen that are all very talented and should make a team that is already deep even deeper.”

The key returners who competed at nationals last year include two seniors who possess great motivation and desire to go out on top. Both Lindsay Szybura and Kyli Astle have shown great leadership and contribution to the program’s success throughout their careers. Both have been among the top seven runners on the team since they were freshmen and key components in qualifying for nationals the past three seasons.

Also from last year’s national team will be junior Jessie Gulsvig. After being slowed her freshman year by a late-season injury, she came back last year stronger than ever and Collins says she should see continued improvement upon that this year.

Rounding out the national team were a crew of freshmen which included Stephanie Shuel, Tayler Harrington and Amanda Palmer, along with the national alternates Madison “Maddy” Randall and Francis Rojas.

“Steph was our lead runner throughout the entire season except for nationals, where I think the newness and the pressure got to her just a little, but she still performed extremely well and was still our second runner for the day,” Collins says. “Both Tayler and Amanda were diagnosed after nationals with mononucleosis, which affected their performances at nationals, but we didn’t know they had it at the time. Additionally, even though Maddy and Francis didn’t get to run in the national meet, they got some valuable experience by getting practice on the national course. That should help them in the future and will undoubtedly motivate them to be among the seven that represent the team this year, should they qualify.”

Collins says the Warriors have a group of additional talented returners, but because of training, injury, illness, and other reasons, they did not get to represent the team at nationals last year. Those runners include senior Sheree Barbour, junior Casey Hampton and sophomores Kelsey Klettke, Kirsten White, Rachael Park and Whitlee Young.

“All of these ladies ran well last year and show great promise to take a huge step this year in challenging themselves and their teammates to be better,” Collins says. “All six of them ran track last spring to better themselves in preparing for this fall and I am sure that work and sacrifice will pay off for them.”

Barbour started of the year a little slow, but showed great improvements in each successive meet. If she starts off this year where she left off a year ago, Collins says she will be very good when it is all said and done.

“Casey made some great strides a year ago,” Collins says. “Despite not showing the improvement we had hoped for during the cross country season, she did make some big steps during track that should help to make this her best cross country season to date. Kelsey also had mononucleosis a year ago and really did not perform to her capabilities throughout the cross country season. I think her talent level made itself pretty evident during track and she is expected to make significant contributions to the team success this year.

“Kirsten also had health issues early in the cross country season with pneumonia, but once we were able to start training, she made good headway and is definitely very hungry to be a part of the national team this fall. Rachael is one of our local products (Lewiston) and we are excited to see her run this fall after adjusting to a new training and team system in our program after transferring from another school. She worked incredibly hard during track and has trained well this summer and we can’t wait to see her run soon. We are similarly excited about Whitlee as she also ran track last spring to make herself better for cross country. She has been training hard this summer and she should also be setting some personal bests this fall and making important contributions to our success.”

Collins said the Warriors are approaching this season with a team concept in mind.

“Our slogan for the year for both the men and women is “Extreme Dreams depend on Teams”.  If you take a look at any great accomplishment, it required teams to make it happen,” Collins says. “Many times there are individuals that get most of the accolades for the accomplishments, but it took a team to make it happen. Michelangelo gets all the credit for the Sistine Chapel, but it was actually a team of painters that made it happen with some whole sections that weren’t even touch by Michelangelo, but I think we can all agree that the chapel ceiling is an amazing thing that at one point in time was just an extreme dream that eventually took a team to make happen.”

Collins said he will let both teams decide what their extreme dreams are, but he believes the women’s team is capable of finishing in the top four in the nation this fall.

“It will take a little luck along the way in avoiding injury and illness and we can’t control the performances of the other teams, but we are very talented and have what it takes to finish on the podium this fall,” he says.

Among the new runners on the women’s team are local product Chelsey Leighton of Lapwai. A very accomplished all-around athlete, Chelsey was more widely known for her basketball prowess and her 400 meter speed on the track, but Collins believes that with some increased volume in her running she is going to be able to apply that speed even better in cross country.

Alline (Allie) Ford comes to the program from Preston High School (Idaho) where she was a multiple medal winner in cross country and track along with Amy Watkins of Melba (Idaho) and Shaelie Edwards of Pleasant Grove (Utah), who both have multiple medals in both disciplines. Other Idaho runners that Collins anticipates seeing contributions from are Ashley Barnes from Moscow and Tammy Parker from Greenleaf Friends Academy.

“With 20 runners on the women’s roster this year, we will definitely have an army stepping off the bus at every meet we attend,” Collins says.

The men’s team also returns a crew of runners with national experience. This experienced group is led by Eric Tuwei, who is the first Warrior to represent three teams at national meets.

“With his final season approaching, we expect him to take it to another level, which will hopefully help to take some of his teammates to this level as well,” Collins says.

Also returning from last year’s national qualifying team are juniors Chris McConnell, Jake Miller and Sean Huey and sophomore Grant Eldridge, along with national alternates Frank Lagrimanta and Andy Keim (both sophomores).

“As a team, we underperformed last year at nationals,” Collins says. "I think I know the personalities of these guys pretty well and after we were done being upset about it, I saw a new mindset forming of determination to qualify again this year and do better than our 22^nd place showing a year ago. Last year we were a legitimate top 12-15 team and potentially top 10, so finishing 22^nd at nationals was disappointing for all of us.

“These returning guys are poised to be pretty great this year by working towards a common goal. Chris, Jake and Frank all stayed in the valley this summer to work and train together and I know they are motivated and physically ready to go. Andy, Grant and Sean had some great training at home over the summer as well as Scott Sweet (Nampa, ID) based on their mid-summer time trials, so I know that physically they are ready to go.”

Collins says the team also has some key guys coming in who will unquestionably contribute to the team’s success this fall. Among the new runners is Mickael Testa (France). He ran some track this past spring, but he prefers cross country and he will definitely challenge for a spot on the national team. Another runner with experience coming in will be Dave Marks. He is transferring in from the University of Portland where he redshirted last season. He struggled with some injuries last year but based on his high school running resume Collins says he will do well at LCSC.

“We have a large group of incoming freshmen that will all play critical roles in the team’s success,” Collins says. “Among these runners are Alex Anderson out of Lake Oswego (Oregon). He ran very well last year as a senior and we believe his potential is just beginning to be tapped.  Also, freshmen expected to compete well are Tommy Bollinger from Chubbock (Idaho) and Nick Pierson (Coeur d’Alene). Both guys were within seconds of each other last year at the Idaho State cross country meet and both had some injury/illness issues this spring, so we did not see the best of them during track.”

Both Tanner Smedley and Josh Shrewsbury (Kearns, UT) have extensive running resumes and Collins says it will be fun to see them adjust to the longer distance and running somewhere other than at the high elevation they were used to in Utah.

Collins expects sophomore Sean Hagan (Redmond, OR), and freshmen Conor Thompson (Kuna, ID) and Alex Weber (Boise, ID) also will contribute to the team. He said all three will likely take some time to adjust to the distance change and/or collegiate running, but he believes they have the talent and desire to compete well at this level.

“Both teams should be in contention to qualify for nationals again this year,” Collins says. "It is pretty obvious on the women’s side that this is a national-caliber team considering our placing last year and all of the returners and new runners. We plan on vying for our third consecutive Frontier Conference title and to work hard to give ourselves a shot at a podium spot at the national meet.

“The men will also be trying to maintain their hold of the conference trophy and at the same time do everything possible to perform at nationals in a manner that better represents the quality team that they are.

“We are looking upon this season with great anticipation and enthusiasm. We are excited to be on a quest to bring to life our ‘extreme dreams.’”

2008 season outlooks