Reflections on women's meet and season

Reflections on women’s meet and season

Seeing freshman Kiersten Anderson entering the Back Hills on Saturday in the lead – IN THE LEAD! – gave me goosebump chill flashbacks to that 2000 meet when Mike Nehr won the University Division race for the men. Kiersten wound up second in yet another amazing performance.

While I am not admittedly the “keeper of the numbers” for the women’s team as I am for the men’s team, I think it’s safe to say that Kiersten had one of the best freshman XC seasons of any women’s runner we’ve had. And she did that despite battling through early- and mid-season injuries that nearly curtailed the whole season. It was great to see.

This fall’s season was a rough one for our ladies, it really was. We had a lot of unexpected twists and turns, and in some cases the results were less than what we were hoping for. But, from my glass-half-full perspective, here’s what I saw: Effort. Strong effort, in pretty much every meet and every race.

Despite the bad breaks, the ladies that ran gave it their all and rarely got discouraged by what we were enduring. And that was gratifying to see. Nothing is guaranteed for the future, but I believe it is bright for our women’s program. Coach Chuck is recruiting hard to build up our depth, and our luck is already improving in the injury department.

Hopefully, this will start to manifest itself in track, and then big-time next fall. I have faith that’s exactly what will happen.