2009 Men's Cross Country & Track Season Outlook

While Guilford College has sponsored men’s and women’s cross country since 2004, a new era dawns for the programs in 2009-10. The Quakers are restoring their men’s track and field program and instituting the first women’s team in school history. In addition, the Quakers will host three meets on its refurbished Meadows Course on campus, including the NCAA Division III South/Southeast Regionals.

The enhancements to Guilford’s cross country and track programs will undoubtedly inspire and encourage the eight letter winners returning from last year’s cross country teams. Both squads enjoyed strong showings at last year’s Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Championship meets where the Quakers combined to set 12 personal records. The veterans will not only be pushed by newcomers attracted by the year-round training and competition, but also by an improved coaching staff that features three coaches who bring a combined 27 years of world-class college experience in all track disciplines. Factor in the Meadows Course, enhanced fitness facilities on campus and the chance to train in the nearby American Hebrew Academy’s state-of-the-art track stadium, and Guilford’s cross country and track program is moving quickly in the right direction.

Second-year cross country coach Heidi Pinkerton, an accomplished distance runner from nearby UNC Greensboro, will employ new training techniques in an effort to improve times and fitness. She has a solid core of returning students on both men’s and women’s teams, including seniors, Tyler Brown and Dana Small. Brown, a team captain, turned in his finest time at last year’s ODAC Championships with the fifth-fastest clocking in school history. Small has run in 15 career races, including last year’s ODAC Championships where she set a personal best. Pinkerton looks to the seniors for leadership and to build teamwork among the veterans and a talented cast of newcomers.

In addition to Brown, the men’s team returns sophomore Palmer Hicks. Hicks blossomed into the Quakers’ fastest runner in 2008 and posted the team’s best time in the final six races. His personal-best 27:54.7 at last year’s ODAC Championships ranks fourth in school history. Hicks also trained with director of track and field Bill Cason during the offseason and competed as an individual in indoor and outdoor track meets last year. Kenyan sophomore Derik Kosgei, a transfer from NCAA Division II East Central University, joins rookies Andre Arguimbau, Jonathan Meade, Lukas Musselwhite, Richard Rogers and Ryan Wroblewski who should help Guilford move closer to the top of the conference and region.

Sophomore Linnea Saby returns as the Quakers’ top women’s runner from last season. Saby's classmate, Ariel Lang, made meaningful contributions and showed steady improvement in her rookie season. Both Saby and Lang had career-lows at the ODAC Championships, including Saby's 26:43.5, the school’s third-fastest. Kenyan rookie Tessy Omina should push Saby and the rest of the team.

Pinkerton has the Quakers gunning for a top-three finish in the ODAC Championships and top-30 individual efforts at the NCAA regionals in November, the third of three races on the Meadows Course. The first is the Guilford Cross Country Carnival Sept. 18-19. In addition to races for college, high school and middle school students, the weekend includes a distance running summit the night before the races that features 1992 United States Olympian Terrance Herrington, a two-time national champion at 1,500 meters. The Quakers will also host the Quaker Invitational on the Meadows Course Oct. 17 as a tune-up for the ODAC Championships Oct. 31 hosted by Roanoke College.

Guilford welcomes its first NCAA cross country event to campus Nov. 14. The men’s and women’s races will feature close to 30 of the top Division III teams from Texas to Virginia. U.S. Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills will speak in a public lecture leading up to the regional meet, which will help put Guilford College cross country and track and field on the map. Top finishers at the regional meet qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships Nov. 21 in Highland Hills, Ohio.

The running will not end in November as in previous years as the Quakers will head into their first indoor track and field season. Cason, Guilford’s director of track and field, and head sprint/jumps/throws coach Wade Williams will guide the track teams, while Pinkerton serves as an assistant coach, working mostly with the distance runners. Cason and Williams are no strangers to the college track and field scene and are intent on building the Quakers into a national power by attracting a handful of dominant student-athletes who can score in the NCAA Championships. Cason says the opportunity to compete for a national title and receive high-level, individualized coaching while training in top-notch facilities makes Guilford the place to be.

Cason has eight years of college track and cross country experience, plus four more as a distance runner at Furman University and the University of Florida. He served under Williams as Clemson University's head men's cross country/assistant track and field coach from 1985-88 and won the 1987 Atlantic Coast Conference's (ACC) Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year Award. In 1988, Cason took over as head men's and women's cross country coach at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he also started the Seahawks' track and field teams. For the past 15 years, Cason has worked mostly with high school student-athletes, including his four college-aged children.

Williams spent 11 years as the head track coach at the Virginia Military Institute before moving on to Clemson for a six-year run. He comes to Guilford after a successful tenure as a teacher and coach at Western Branch High School in Virginia. Williams has coached two ACC championship teams, 12 Southern Conference champions and four Virginia state high school championship teams. He is expert in speed development and has coached multiple Olympians and All-Americans in his nearly 40 years as a college and high school coach.

Those on the cross country teams will comprise the bulk of Guilford’s middle and long-distance track competitors. The remainder of this year’s track and field teams will come from January transfers and students already attending Guilford. Three indoor meets are scheduled as well as six outdoor competitions, including the prestigious Florida Relays and Penn Relays. The Quakers are also eligible to compete in the ODAC and NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Cason, Pinkerton and Williams will also spend significant time and energy recruiting prospective students excited by the chance to make an immediate impact with a new and upcoming program. The coaches will use their experience and relationships with high school coaches to find those students, especially those in Virginia where Williams’ legacy is strong. It may not be this season, but it shouldn’t take long before the Quakers track and field teams rise to the level NCAA Division III championship contenders.