Wyoming cross country is looking to have another successful season this year after performing well last season. A lot of that success will be banking on the team’s experience as a roster, as both the men and women teams return almost all their competitors who performed at last year’s NCAA Regional Championships, as only one athlete from the men’s team that made the Regional Championship is not returning.
Expectations are already high for both sides, as the men were recently picked to place third and the women sixth in the Mountain West preseason polls. Not only that, but the men and the women were also picked eight and ninth, respectively, in the Mountain Region as a whole.
This comes a season after the men ended 44th out of 320 teams and the women ended 54th out of 350 teams in power rankings, according to eight year cross-country head coach Scott Dahlberg
Dahlberg also has big expectations for this season, especially after last season where he felt his athletes still had a little more to show.
“We had some really good performances throughout the year, every meet we had some athletes step up,” Dahlberg said of last season. “But to be honest, we walked away from the season a little dissatisfied, because we knew we left some out there.”
“It felt like we didn’t have that meet where we put all the pieces together, I think the athletes can agree with that,” Dahlberg added.
However, Dahlberg notes that his team has grown tremendously since last season, especially as many of the athletes compete all year long in both indoor and outdoor track during the winter and spring seasons. Dahlberg thinks that the work his crew put in during those times will take them to the next level.
“A lot of breakthrough performances in the races, a lot of breakthrough workout, some really good things that we saw that helped them make that change [to] that next level,” Dahlberg noted of the growth his team had during the year after last cross-country season.
Dahlberg will also be relying on the experience and culture created by his team to truly take them to the next level. At the end of the day, it is truly up to his veteran roster to make this season successful on their own.
“We have really good leaders, some older athletes, they’re just kind of taking over what it means to be a teammate and how they support each other,” Dahlberg said.
The cross country season started on August 30 in Cheyenne, where Dahlberg noted his team will be looking to “knock the rust off” and just get back into the groove of racing. Soon after, though, the team jumps right into things at the Roy Griak Invitational, hosted by Minnesota in Minneapolis.
