Preseason begins in days; XC schedule is released

It still looks and feels like summer. But our seasonal calendars are a bit different. Summer’s basically over. The fall – and the new school year – begins on Sunday when the men’s and women’s cross country teams return to campus for preseason. The excitement is building among team members. The usually mellow Reynolds even said to me today: “So. Are you psyched for next week? Or what.” Indeed.

Sunday will begin the 22nd preseason cross country camp for this old coach. Like it or not, we will start as we have always started, with the Mills Hills workout at the Mills Estate in Staatsburg. Coach Chuck broke with tradition last year and brought the women’s team to Bowdoin Park for their season-opening workout. He plans to do the same again this year. But this old coach’s habits die hard; besides, it is a fun workout because I get to the see the team from start to finish. Anyway, more on preseason in the coming days. First, a quick breakdown of our season schedule, which was released on goredfoxes.com last week.

Saturday, September 1: Home meet at Bowdoin Park. Teams scheduled to attend include our MAAC friends Iona College, Fairfield University and St. Peter’s College. Women’s race at 8:30 a.m. Men’s race at 9:15 p.m. Hope to see you there.

Saturday, September 8: Red Fox Trot 5K. Our teams will be out in full force, supporting this fine Mid-Hudson Road Runners Club race on campus. We’re hoping for the same “full force” showing from our alumni!

Saturday, September 15: Stony Brook Invitational. New! This replaces the usual Iona College Meet of Champions at Van Cortlandt Park. We will not be running the MAAC meet at Vanny this year (Disney!), and this meet enables us to run more of our athletes. In addition, we will be surrounded by friends, family and alumni in the Long Island area. What’s not to like about it?

Saturday, September 22: Ted Owen Invitational, Central Connecticut. The women will go to defend their title. We will be a partial men’s squad to the meet (most – but not all – men will race at Stony Brook).

Friday, September 28: Paul Short Run at Lehigh. We return to this regular meet on our schedule.

Saturday, October 13: Princeton Invitational. New to the schedule. The UAlbany meet was moved to Paul Short weekend. We hope to be able to race with as many competitors as possible.

Friday, October 19: CCSU Mini Meet. Shorter race distances as a tuneup for the conference championships. Those racing at MAACs most likely will not race at this meet.

Saturday, October 27: MAAC at Disney. Hopkins’ Uncle Duane has touched base already this summer and promises to be there in full force, supporting the Red Foxes. Nicely done. This is our fourth trip to Disney for MAACs. Time flies. Seems like yesterday I was in the hotel room with Phil and Pat Driscoll and former assistant AD Sean Morrison watching the 2000 World Series Game 1 vs. the Mets. That was 12 years ago!

Friday, November 9: NCAA Regional meet, which returns to Hammonasset State Park in Connecticut, site of the 2010 Regionals.

Saturday, November 17: IC4A/ECAC Championships at Van Cortlandt.

And that’s it!