The men’s and women’s cross country teams today have their first chance to prove they belong in the nation’s top 20.
MSU hosts eight colleges this afternoon in the Nike/Playmakers Spartan Invitational, the teams’ first regular-season event. Preseason polls rank the men’s team No. 15 in the nation and the women’s team 12th.
Both teams are among the top teams in the Great Lakes Region as well. The men and women are ranked third and second, respectively, in the region.
“What we’re looking for is to see where we’re at at this point,” coach Jim Stintzi said. “We want to see how far back we are from the front-runners.”
The lofty preseason rankings might provide a positive outlook for the teams, but Stintzi maintained that rankings don’t hold much weight.
“Rankings don’t mean a whole lot,” he said, “Are we ranked a little too high? Maybe. Are we ranked a little too low? Maybe. If that’s the way the rest of the country sees us, fine.”
The teams hope to improve on impressive finishes from the 2001 campaign. The women’s team placed first at the Big Ten Championships and NCAA Great Lakes Regionals, capping off the season with an 11th place finish at the NCAA Championships.
The men earned third place at the Big Ten Championships and NCAA Great Lakes Regionals and 18th at the NCAA Championship.
Despite last season’s success and this year’s preseason accolades, Stintzi says that the Spartans are in for a tough regional year.
“Year in and year out, it’s one of the best regions,” Stintzi said. “We have to ready to go.”
MSU also enters the invitational without top runners Ben Evans, last year’s winner, and Ann Sommerville, who have been redshirted. Despite their loss, the teams still enter the year with mostly returning runners.
“I hope we can improve on what we did last year,” Stintzi said, adding that both teams are fielding mostly returning runners.
The Spartan Invitational is traditionally a nonscoring event. Results will not be tallied to team’s accumulated season points, but results could affect national and regional standings.
