Cross country remains MWC top dog

By: Mike Wozniak
Contributing Writer

The Men’s Cross Country Team has had an impressive showing this year. The squad has finished first or second in three of their four meets. Monmouth continued their winning ways when they finished first out of four teams at the UW-Platteville Open.

The year started off at the Central Dutch Invitational where the Scots finished first of eight teams. Then the squad finished second out of 12 at the Carroll College Invitational and then an impressive fifth out of 39 competitors in the Augustana Brissman-Lundeen Invitational. They look to be on track to have an impressive showing at the conference championships and NCAA Regional later this year.

Head Coach Roger Haynes had this to say about the team’s performance this year: “I am pleased with what they have done. We finished fifth out of 39 teams at Augustana; it is the best we have ever done. They have come ready pretty much every weekend. We plan to be at our best at the upcoming meets, especially conference and regionals.”

There have been many great additions to the team this year, namely freshmen Clay Staley and Brad Begyn, not to mention sophomore Andrew Kuebrich.

Staley has been one of the top runners throughout the year; he has posted times of 26:46 (8th overall), 25:53 (9th overall), and 27:28 (1st overall). Staley has been the top finisher in three out of four of the team’s meets thus far.

When asked about the chemistry of the team, Staley says, “This is the closest group of guys that I’ve ever been teammates with. Everyone on the team plays and knows their individual roles. We help and support each other like brothers.”

Begyn’s performances have also been critical to the team’s success. Haynes had this to say about Begyn: “He has been in our top six all year. He has improved tremendously since his last high school season; he has a great future.”

Sophomore Andrew Kuberich is in his first year with the team and has shown that he is here to stay, “Andrew is consistently one of the hardest workers on the team. He has shown great improvement since the first of the season and has contributed to the team with great attitude and improvement,” said Haynes.

The new faces on the team have contributed greatly to the continuity of the team. There is no captain; it is a team of leaders.

“Everyone who shows up daily and puts themselves through the miles and miles of training and the off season work is a leader. The people who run because they are runners not people out for cross country. That is nearly our entire team and the team is moving in that direction. As soon as one leader is defined then people look to the leader not for a means of doing things right but as a person to point fingers at when they do something wrong. If you have anyone on the team who does their job be a leader then all the good qualities get pulled out,” said senior Kel Bond. 

The Men’s Cross Country Team is more of a family than anything: “The team is a close, small group of guys who are mostly all alike. There really is not another group on campus that can mesh better than this one. That could be because we are misfits from the rest of the campus, but that is beside the point,” said Bond.

The Scots will travel next to the Wartburg Houston Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 7. The Scots are just two weeks away from the Midwest Conference Championship race that is on Oct. 28.