With its first two meets cancelled due to Hurricane Katrina, the men’s and women’s cross country teams will begin their seasons at the Ragin’ Cajun Invitational in Lafayette Saturday.The Xavier Invitational in New Orleans and the Southern Mississippi Invitational in Hattiesburg, Miss., the first two meets of the season, were cancelled and will not be rescheduled.
This year’s squads will begin their seasons under new head coach, Scott Williamson. Hired Aug. 2, Williamson replaces former head cross country coach, Agapius Amo. This will be Williamson’s first head coaching job on the collegiate level.
Although he only ran track in college, Williamson said he is confident in his ability to lead the cross country squads.
“I think a coach is a coach,” he said. “I don’t feel that I have to have done an activity to be able to coach it. I have never run cross country myself, but I feel very confident in coaching it and training athletes in whatever activity.”
This season Williamson will have the task of trying to improve both squads’ performances.
Of the seven invitationals in which the women’s squad participated last year, the team finished in the middle or bottom portion of the pack the majority of the time. Their team’s best showing was when it won its portion of the Colonel Invitational, the first time the squad won the meet.
The men’s squad finished toward the bottom or in the final spot in all seven of the invitationals in which it competed. The team’s best showing also came at the Colonel Invitational, where it placed second.
This coming season, Williamson must replace graduating senior Cassie Jones, who led the women’s team in every invitational in which it ran last season.
“It’s always difficult to lose your best runners,” Williamson said. “You just hope (another runner) will step up to the challenge of being the next lead runner (and) step up to fill her shoes.”
Additionally, six other runners did not return this season.
Sophomores Anastasia Jones and Nicole Triche are the female runners Williamson hopes to lead the women’s squad because “they have a season of collegiate cross country under their belts.”
On the men’s side Williamson said he expects great things from sophomores Jory Billiot and Colin Campo.
Williamson said if his squads focus on individual improvement and becoming more refined athletes, performances will improve.
Triche said Williamson’s workout regimen is more difficult than Amo’s.
“He’s mixing up a lot of different things that we didn’t have before like weights (and) abs, too, besides just the running,” Triche said.
Campo said the team chemistry has remained the same. During the coaching change he said it was not as strong due “just to all the tension because of our coach getting replaced.”
Besides the Ragin’ Cajun Invitational, the squads will participate in three other meets this season: the LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge, the Northwestern State University Invitational in Natchitoches and the Southland Conference Cross Country Championships in Beaumont, Texas.
