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Cross country sitting 9th in Great Lakes Region

Freshman Jillian Black (above), and the women's cross country team have been running on all cylinders this season, winning two of the team's first three races.
Freshman Jillian Black (above), and the women's cross country team have been running on all cylinders this season, winning two of the team's first three races.

Erika Hadley

Freshman Jillian Black (above), and the women's cross country team have been running on all cylinders this season, winning two of the team's first three races.

A healthy team is what women's cross country Head Coach Richard Ceronie attributes to the team's early success so far this season.

"We have been healthy," he said. "We've had no major injuries so far, and we've really been working very hard at keeping it that way."

According to Ceronie, who is now in his 24th season as the head coach of the women's cross country team, overall team health is what separates the 2007 season from last year's 22nd place finish in the Great Lakes Region, and their current ninth place ranking this season.

"Several of our top runners were ill," Ceronie said. "So consequentially our front people who really carried the team were not running by the end of the season."

But this year things have drastically changed for the team, as the RedHawks have been steadily gaining ground within the Great Lakes Region's competitive field. Initially ranked 14th in the Great Lakes Region preseason poll, the girls have jumped to ninth in the polls, and have been holding their own in a notoriously challenging region.

"The Great Lakes Region is the strongest cross country region in the country," Ceronie said. "We have finished seventh or eighth in our region before, and when you compare that to the rest of the country, we would finish second or third in a lot of the other regions. This is an absolute tough region."

So far, the Red and White has won two out of the three meets it has competed in so far this season, finishing second in the other. Junior Laura Neufarth has recorded first-place finishes in two of the three races, and notched a second-place finish in the third.

Neufarth, a transfer student from Ohio State University, has won the Mid-American Conference Runner of the Week award for the weeks of Sept. 13 and Sept. 18.

"Laura has been an absolute joy to have," Ceronie said. "She didn't even run as a freshman at Ohio State, and was injured while running cross country there last year, so she has worked really hard."

Neufarth has been working hard to stay healthy and so far she has seen positive results during meets.

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"My mental strategy has been to stay positive, healthy and to make sure that our team is working hard," she said. "I'm trying to just stay focused during the season so that I can finish strong."

Senior Jennie Stoll has also been a key factor in the 'Hawk's success this season. Stoll, who was named to the All-MAC Second Team for two consecutive years in 2005 and 2006, battled injuries all last season. She has since recovered, and has placed in the top 10 in all three races this year.

"Jennie has very much returned to being the all-conference runner that she was before," Ceronie said.

Ceronie also cited Rebekah Hollander as being an unanticipated contributor to the team's accomplishments this season.

"Maybe the biggest surprise would be Rebekah Hollander, who two years ago as a freshman we didn't even know if she could make the team, now she's running in the top five," Ceronie said.

However, these three girls are not the only keys to the team's success. Many times over, the sentiment has been echoed that the team's greatest strength is its closeness they share as teammates.

"This may be one of the tightest knit teams I've ever coached in 24 years here at Miami," Ceronie said. "They really work hard at communicating with each other and encouraging each other, so that dynamic is very, very strong and that is one of their strongest suits right now."

Neufarth agreed, saying that the team is close both during meets, but also when the team isn't running.

"We get along so well and we have a great team," Neufarth said. "That's one of the big differences that I've experienced in coming to a new school. We all like to hang out as a team and we're always there to support each other."

This sense of team unity has assisted the team in working toward one of its main goals for the season-to keep a very small gap between the times of the scoring runners at each competition.

"They definitely run with a pack mentality," Ceronie said. "We've set a goal to keep the split between our first runner and our fifth runner, which are the five scoring people, to be around 30 seconds."

Over the course of the season, the team has been progressively moving toward making this goal a reality.

"We got it down to 34 seconds in the last meet, which is one of the better ones that we've had in a long time," Ceronie said.

Neufarth also enjoys running races as a pack because she says it helps the teammates to keep track of one another.

"We talk to each other during races, so I'll know if there's a girl behind me," Neufarth said. "It's just nice to know that there's someone there looking out for you and pushing you."

This strategy seems to be working, as the team has been making significant headway since last season.

"In the last 24 years, we've had the second best record in the conference," Ceronie said. "The primary focus is always to go to the conference meet positioned to contend for the conference title."

The team's next opportunity to make strides toward this goal will be Friday at the All Ohio Championships in Delaware, Ohio.