When a starfish loses a limb, it regenerates the missing appendage.
This concept is one the UNM cross country teams would do well to replicate in the upcoming season. Both teams are losing crucial limbs, if you will.
The men’s team will lose Jacob Kirwa, Lee Emanuel and Chris Barnicle to graduation, while the women’s team loses Nicky Archer, Carolyn Boosey, Ashley Gibson and Laura Bowerman, all of whom were on the Lobos’ scoring team at NCAA Championships.
Despite the heavy losses on both sides, head coach Joe Franklin said he is confident his team can rebound.
“We have to rely on the students we have returning, which is a significant portion,” he said.
The bigger question, though, is not whether the teams can fill the spots, but if the spots can be filled with the same success as last season.
The men’s team finished with a phenomenal eighth place at the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships, and the women’s team placed 13th.
In 2009, both teams claimed the 2009 Mountain West Conference title, beating out longtime rival and division favorite BYU.
Franklin said he is confident his team will meet, and perhaps surpass, the last season team’s success.
“Both teams will be challenged by what they did last year,” Franklin said. “There’s just not as quite as much room for error.”
On the men’s side, the Lobos will have to contend with losing Kirwa, an All-American who finished in 11th place in the 10,000-meter run at nationals.
Franklin said Rory Fraser is likely the one to fill Kirwa’s spot.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Brock Hagerman, a senior who redshirted the 2009 season, said the team will miss Kirwa but will adapt to his absence by tightening the spread of runners.
“It’s not demoralizing,” Hagerman said. “We’ll all miss them, but the bulk of the team is back. It’s really nothing to worry about.”
Hagerman said he expects the men’s team to respond strongly to losing runners because many of the returning athletes didn’t make the NCAA championships in the outdoor track season.
“We have some unfinished business from the outdoor season,” Hagerman said. “The whole team this year is pretty hungry to beat the team from last year.”
Meanwhile, the women’s team won’t be impacted as severely, because it still has powerhouse runner Ruth Senior, whose top finishes helped the women’s team notch key victories.
Teammate Lacy Oeding, a junior, said Senior is a unifying figure on the team.
“She’s a great model,” Oeding said. “I have never seen her fall apart in a race. I’m really happy to see someone finish that high. It brings the score down. If we didn’t have her, we’d be doing worse as a team.”
Oeding, who finished 63rd at nationals, said there is always room to improve.
In that vein, Franklin said he expects Oeding and Senior to have great seasons. He said he expects other not-yet-well-known athletes to ascend to new heights this coming season, but as of right now it’s a bit unclear what the future holds.
“Our goal is to be top 4 every year, (similar to how) every basketball team wants to win the national championship,” Franklin said. “Really, if you make it there, anything can happen, and that’s our goal.”
