Falcon cross country opens its season tonight with a dual meet at Toledo.
The meet will be held at Ottawa Park Golf Course with the men’s team starting at 7 p.m. and the women’s team following at 7:30.
Coach Cami Wells said she’s been very pleased with both of her teams so far in practice, and she’s excited to see what each team can do.
‘Our goals for this meet are to win, obviously. And we want to get the best out of everyone who runs,’ she said. ‘We can’t control how well Toledo does; we just need to focus on what we’re doing.’
On the men’s side, Toledo didn’t lose any runners from last season. Toledo’s men’s team was voted to finish eighth this season, one spot ahead of BG.
The BG men have lost three consecutive meets to Toledo and are 2-4 overall in the meet’s history.
Wells is excited to see how her team will fare, especially with the way the team has been practicing this season.
‘The men’s team has been working well together,’ she said. ‘I’ve liked how the men have been pushing one another and practicing to be more competitive.’
The BG women, meanwhile, are 5-0-1 in the history of the Toledo dual meet and have won the last five.
This season BG and Toledo return experienced women’s teams.
‘Toledo has a strong women’s team returning,’ Wells said. ‘Whether Toledo’s best runners will compete [today] is unclear. I hope they do, because we always want to do well against Toledo.’
Wells said often teams will hold certain runners out of meets for whatever reason. Personally, she doesn’t believe in holding someone from competition unless he or she is injured.
The Toledo women’s team finished sixth behind BG last season at the Mid-American Conference championship and was voted to finish fourth this season.
Wells said this meet will indicate where both of her teams are progress-wise, and then she’ll know what each team needs to work on from this point on.
‘We’re always looking to progress week to week, but this meet will tell us exactly what we need to get better at,’ she said. ‘Running individually is different than running in a meet, so we’ll see what the differences are in that regard.’
BG and Toledo will compete again next Saturday at 2:45 p.m. in their home meet, the Mel Brodt Invitational.
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