The St. Thomas University Tommies cross-country team may be looking at making nationals with the change of their head coach and new additions to the team.
Mary Astle was previously the assistant coach for the cross-country and track and field teams, but she has since taken on the position of head coach for the 2016 cross-country season.
“Twenty years ago, I was a competitive runner myself,” she said.
“Over time, life just changes, and I stopped running, but I became a coach throughout the community.”
Last year was not a favourable one for the team, as the season got off to a rough start and the team couldn’t seem to rebound enough to gain any titles.
Last year, Astle said, most of the team was finishing at the back of the pack – with the exception of team captain and recent STU grad Paul Nozicka.
“We didn’t even have enough women in the beginning for a full team,” said Astle.
Astle said the team was forced to grab athletes from other disciplines that had the ability to run in order to have enough heads to compete.
This year is a different story, however. Between the veteran runners and the 11 new rookies that joined the team this season, both female and male teams are full.
Chelsey Hall is one rookie that Astle thinks will help the team with motivation and technique.
“She comes with a lot of background that she can share with respect to running form and experience that we didn’t have in the past at STU,” said the coach.
Alex Coffin, the former cross-country head coach, spoke highly of 2016 rookie Ryan Terry.
Coffin said Terry may end up challenging last year’s talent.
Coffin is still involved as cross-country assistant coach. He is also head coach of the STU track and field squad.
“Ryan Terry should threaten Paul’s record of the top placement of a STU runner at the [Atlantic University Sport] championships,” said Coffin.
On Saturday, Sept. 24, Terry participated in the first cross-country meet of the year at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S. He placed 11th out of 39 runners.
“For the first time in a while, we have the opportunity for a couple of rookies to have the potential to get to nationals,” said Astle.
Training for the team has been ramped up to a six-day-a-week program, which is comparable to other universities’ training programs.
“My expectations of the team are that they train like any other university athlete would,” said Astle.
This year, Astle said, the team will have more improvement than ever before.
She has faith that both female and male runners will finish in the top 20.
“I think it’s an opportunity for us to break some records in general.”
STU and the University of New Brunswick will host a women’s and men’s event at Odell Park in Fredericton on Saturday, Oct. 15.
In the meantime, the Tommies took part in a meet on Saturday, Sept. 24 at the Université de Moncton.
This year’s AUS cross-country championships are set for Saturday, Oct. 29 at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S.
