A new year for Auburn students brings new beginnings for many people around campus, including those on the men's and women's cross country teams.
With the addition of a new coach and three fresh faces on the women's team, the runners hope to keep building on the last few seasons' records.
"We were fifth in the NCAA last year, and we're looking to do the same type of damage this year," said Scott Novack, a redshirt senior on the men's team.
The team prepares all year for their season in the fall.
"Three hundred sixty days of the year, basically," said junior Allison Smith. "The summer is just putting in a lot of miles, and then when the season starts it's just picking up speed and doing speed work outs."
Laurel Pritchard, a senior, agreed with her teammate.
"Yep. It's just building everything up," Pritchard said.
The women's goal this season is to take the momentum they have gained over the past few years and obtain a national title for Auburn.
To help both teams achieve their goals, Auburn welcomes two-time Irish Olympian Mark Carroll to coach the teams.
"It's a whole new world of coaching," Smith said, "And I think it's going to take a lot of time to get used to it, but it's a huge improvement."
Carroll has a long list of qualifications for the head coach position.
"Two-time Irish national record holder, two-time Olympian, multiple championships," Novack said. "He ran professionally for 14 years after being an NCAA champion in college. He knows the ins and outs of running."
Many of the players agree that Carroll is a good addition to the team.
"You know he has a plan, and it works," Smith said. "There's a reason for everything."
The addition of Carroll and three female runners enhances their chances of scoring big this season.
"I don't think the dimensions of the girls' team is going to change very much," Smith said, "but I think we're all more solid runners this year and we're going to perform a lot better, but, personality and friendship wise, it's about the same."
Each runner is important to the team. Even though cross country is a solitary sport, they feed off of each other and depend on each other.
"It's very team oriented and we try to build the team up as much as possible," Novack said.
Although each team is small, with eight runners on the women's team and nine on the men's, they plan to make their presence known.
"It's the determination to prove our distance program down here can be just as good as any program in the country," Novack said about the team. "It's not just a fluke that we got fifth place for the guys last year and the girls have been improving quite well over the last two years."
Both teams begin their season Sept. 5 at Troy.
Each team is hard at work to make Auburn's distance program known.
"We make Auburn proud, that's for sure," Novack said. "Even in the middle of nowhere USA."
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