Cross Country Travels to Akron to Begin 2009 Campaign

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Sept. 4, 2009

Youngstown -- With Saturday’s Akron Quad Meet marking the season opener for the Youngstown State men’s and women’s cross country squads, both teams will need to rely on health and daily improvement to make the 2009 campaign a successful one.

Both squads have a nice mix of experience and young talent as the men’s squad has six returners from a year ago as well as three newcomers, while the women return six and welcome in four.

Last season at the Horizon League Championships; the men finished sixth, while the women were one spot behind in seventh. Head coach Brian Gorby believes that this year both squads can make a push and elevate themselves into the top-three finishers.

For the men, they will be without the services of Justin Dickman, who led the squad in five of the seven meets, but do return junior Jake Lape who finished as the top Penguin scorer twice last season. Also returning will be juniors Jim Ramson and Jake Dialesandro, who both contributed heavily to the squad a year ago.

“Jake led the team last year with an 8k time of 25:50, and combined with his experience and consistency, he will be a strong leader for us this fall,” Gorby said. “Jim Ramson is finally healthy and has had a great summer of training and will be counted upon to be there with Jake (Dialesandro) step for step, as Jake has made tremendous improvements running personal bests weekly in track last year and ran a road 5k best time of 15:33 last week to continue his improvement.”

Another individual who will be heavily replied upon will be freshman Kiplangat Tisia. Tisia will be making his YSU cross country debut, but has already established name recognition throughout the Horizon League as he was named Horizon League Newcomer of the Year following both the indoor and outdoor seasons.

“Tisia was ranked 19th nationally in the steeplechase and was the top freshmen in the nation in the event,” states Gorby. “Kip has really adapted to the training and school and has the talent and ability to be in the top spots of most races.”

Gorby also believes that when juniors Joe Copple, Rick Lape and Scott Denham as well as freshman newcomer Lance Ronghi are healthy, they will be provided with great depth throughout the season as all four have the capability to be 25:29 performers.

Freshman Aron Korir has a personal-best 5k time of 14:24 and Gorby hopes he can be a big help as one of the top five scorers once he adapts to the training over the next month.

“Our five scorers on paper gives us the sub 25:59 depth for 8,000 meters that we've been working
toward the past couple years so that will help in improving on past team results weekly,” Gorby said.
“If we can take care of the details and most importantly stay healthy, this men’s squad has the opportunity to really make weekly improvements on the past two year’s results. “

On the women’s side, Gorby hopes the strong outdoor seasons of senior Lauren Blase and junior Kayla Witmer will carry over into the cross country season. Last fall, Blase and Witmer were the top-two finishers for the Penguins in all seven meets.

“With the women coming off an outdoor track season where Lauren really improved to set and break the six-year-old 5000m YSU record with a time of 17:02 and Kayla scoring big personal best’s in the 10k (36:49.15)and 5k(18:21.14), that helped the women bring home the Horizon League Outdoor Championship,” said Gorby. “We are looking at carrying that improvement, success and momentum into the Cross Country season as the women look to try to move up in the standings from last year at the Horizon League Championships.”

Seniors will also be a key as according to Gorby, as Dawn Goodwin scored last year at the league meet and will be counted on as always during the team’s championship phase of meets. Also Lisa Lee has shown experience early by running a personal-best time of 19:42 in the road 5k.

Freshmen Samantha Hamilton and Katherine Digby have opened up with strong 5k road times as Hamilton has a time of 17:57 and Digby ran a 19:05 road 5k. “This gives us the sub 19:00 depth that we’ve been working toward for our top five scorers the past couple years,” stated Gorby.

Gorby also hopes that another freshman, Nelly Yegon, can help the squad through the course of the season.

“We are hoping for Nelly to make the quick adjustment and hope she can get back to her personal best of 18:05 for the 5k, he said. “Nelly has been improving daily."

“We've focused our schedule to really improve our training early to increase fitness come October and November and like the men, if the women take care of the details and stay healthy, they really have a chance to make some big improvements on the past two years.”