Cross Country Squad Prepares To Kick Off Season

This Friday, a new-look Harvard men’s and women’s cross country team will hit the ground running in Franklin Park at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet, the squad’s first of the 2015 season.

“The team has a much different feel to it compared to last year,” men’s captain Thomas Purnell said. “We’ve got a better attitude than we did last season. We weren’t really fully committed last year and just thought it would come to us. There’s a lot more focus in this group, a lot more intensity.”

Purnell was the Crimson’s lone runner to compete at the NCAA National Championships last year, after finishing 17th at NCAA Regionals. The Gloucestershire, U.K., native was also Harvard’s top runner at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, where he finished eighth.

Fellow captain Chris Allen will help lead the team alongside Purnell on the men’s side. Allen was the third Crimson runner to cross the finish line at last year’s Ivy League Heptagonal Championships and NCAA Regionals.

Sophomore Ben Huffman will help anchor a men’s team with only four seniors and 17 underclassmen. The Waxhaw, N.C., native was the youngest Harvard runner on the men’s side to run in the Ivy League Heps last season, where he finished behind Purnell with the second-best time of any Harvard competitor.

The Harvard men will be looking to avenge a third place finish at last year’s Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet when they face off against conference rivals Yale and Princeton on Friday.

“It’s great to be on our home course,” men’s coach Jason Saretsky said. “We’re working hard and putting in the miles to develop our aerobic capacity to set us up for a great meet.”

On the women’s side, second year coach Patrick Wales-Dinan hopes to build on the progress made last season, which he called a “year filled with transition.”

“We’re encouraged with where we are coming out of preseason and summer training,” Wales-Dinan said. “We just weren’t very good last year. We weren’t all on the same page. This is going to be the foundation year for what’s going to be exceptional success for the next five to 10 years.”

Captain Paige Kouba was the only non-senior to run in last season’s NCAA Regionals, where she finished fourth among Harvard runners and 82nd overall. The Eugene, Ore. native was the Crimson’s top finisher at the Ivy League Heps, where she finished 19th overall and helped lead the squad to a fifth place finish.

“We’re ready to do something a lot bigger than last year,” women’s captain Paige Kouba said. “Last year was a transition year. This time, we’re a little more experienced, a little more ready, and a lot more fit than we were before.”

Joining Kouba in leading the women’s team are junior Sarah Gillespie and sophomore Courtney Smith. Gillespie posted a 21st place finish at last season’s Ivy League Heps, finishing just a little over one second behind Kouba. Smith wasted no time breaking onto the scene last year, as she was the first Crimson runner to cross the finish line at the season-opening competition, the H-Y-P meet.

Freshman Erin Dietz rounds out a youthful bunch on the women’s side. Dietz was a Footlocker National Cross Country Finalist in 2014 and was twice a Massachusetts state champion in track and cross country before arriving at Harvard.

The Bedford, Mass. native, who finished third at U.S. Junior Nationals in the 5k race, leads a group of six freshmen on the women’s side.

“Harvard should be a name that is synonymous with excellence in everything that it does, and it should be that way with cross country,” Saretsky said. “We’ve established that on the track side, and I’m excited for the men’s distance group to take that on, and I’m confident that the women are in a great position to have a competitive season.”

—Staff writer Michael P. Dybala can be reached at michael.dybala@thecrimson.com.