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August 31, 2011
Staying healthy will be key for men’s cross country team
With only five runners on the squad, the Cowley College men’s cross country team will need to focus on staying healthy if they want to continue their dominance on the national level.
The team is coming off a 2010 season to remember as they became the first NJCAA men’s cross country program to win a conference title, region title, national championship, and half marathon in the same season.
Mark Phillips, who served as head coach of the Tiger cross country teams from 2003-2007 prior to becoming the teams assistant coach each of the past three seasons, returns to head coach of the squad after former coach Vince DeGrado returned to coach at his alma mater, Allen County Community College.
Despite the lack of runners on the roster, Phillips’ goals remain the same.
“Staying healthy will be huge for us,” said Phillips. “Five is not what we wanted or planned on, but this is a talented group. This team definitely has the ability to defend its conference and region championships.”
Cowley will look to make up for the loss of All-American Josh Gracia, who is now running for the University of Oklahoma. Second-team All-American Cameron Balser, who was the conference runner-up to Gracia and placed eighth at last year’s national championship, recently made the decision to remain home in Indiana, while Shaun Koehn, who placed 38th at last year’s national meet, recently decided to transfer to NCAA Division I school, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, leaving Cowley with only the five runners.
Sophomore Victor Others, who earned all-conference and all-region honors as a freshman and was the outdoor track conference champion in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter runs, is the team’s lone returning runner.
“I have never seen Victor as fit as he is now,” Phillips said.
Highlighting the four new runners in the program is freshman Jack Taylor from Wisconsin. Taylor was named the District I Athlete of the Year and helped Webster High School capture the cross country state title as a sophomore. He also was the individual state champion as a senior.
“Jack had a really good high school career,” Philips said.
Fellow freshman Cody Drake was a three-time state qualifier at Dexter High School, while Joe Springer (Frontier (OK) High School) and Andrew Means (Ponca City (OK) High School) also ran well in high school.
“Those guys have just got to stay healthy and figure out how to run at the college level,” Phillips said.
Cowley won seven of its eight meets they competed in last season. However, Phillips and his assistant coach Kevin McDougal are not putting a priority on winning meets early in the season as much as when it matters most at the end of the year.
“Kevin and I have the same philosophy, we both love to have our kids run fast but we won’t give up a run at a championship just to have our kids run fast early in the season,” Phillips said.
McDougal, who was an All-American runner at Cowley in 2002, is excited about returning to his alma mater.
“I am ready to get going and excited about what this team can do,” McDougal. “Our schedule is set up to keep our kids healthy.”
Cowley will open the season Saturday at the Wichita State Classic in Augusta. The men's race will begin at 9:45 a.m.
With limited numbers, Phillips knows how important each member of the team will be to the squad’s success.
“If we want to do well at the regional and national meet everybody has got to show up and run well,” Phillips said.
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