Cross country set the tone for the season with a first-place finish from the women’s team and a second-place finish from the men’s team at Friday’s meet. 

The results gave both teams confidence heading into the rest of the season, but head coach Wayne Angel said the runners still have areas to improve. He said the teams performed well based on their training and where they were last season. 

“I think they performed solid,” Angel said. “You know, it’s your first meet. We don’t want to get too excited about it, but in terms of training and where they were last year, as opposed to this year, I thought they did well.”

Saylor Stevenson, sophomore marketing major from Rockwall, said the team worked through challenging practices leading up to the meet. 

The runners completed two workouts each week that included 400-meter repeats, 2,400-meter repeats with short rest periods and a mile-and-a-half repeat. The rest of the week included high-mileage runs at a fast pace. 

Stevenson said she also worked on her mentality during the offseason after struggling with doubt last year. She focused on encouraging her teammates during races and using positive affirmations when she began to struggle. 

“I’ve been working on encouraging my teammates while I’m running because it also encourages me when I’m struggling, too,” Stevenson said. “So I’m just having a positive mindset.” 

Angel said the teams’ top runners performed as expected, but the biggest goal moving forward is to close the gap between the first and fifth runners. 

“I think we can continue to work on closing the gap between our number one runner and number five runner,” Angel said. “I think we can be a little bit tougher, learning to embrace the discomfort.”

The women’s and men’s teams were both picked to finish in the middle of the conference, with the women picked fourth and the men picked fifth. Friday’s results gave the team an encouraging start as they continue preparing for future meets.