Imagine this: Speeding around a rough trail with the wind biting you in the eyes; trying like hell to overtake the enemy only a few yards in front of you; adrenaline pulsing through your eyes, skin, and heart like the hook to a Tool song; it’s 107 degrees outside and you aren’t even close to being finished.

For many the thought is a scary one, but for a few exceptions, it’s a thrill they love. This year is no different, except that there are a lot less that find it a thrill.

“Ideally we would like to have 15 guys and 15 girls for the cross-country team,” says Head Coach Erin Bresnan.

This year the numbers are lagging a little with 13 girls and eight guys. The truly sad part is that the guys’ number is only that high because of some inter-sport recruiting done by coach Bresnan.

So what is the good news in all this?

The good news is that the people who are running truly want to be out there leaving pints of blood, sweat and tears on the course. So instead of having 30 runners–16 of which are constantly carping and kvetching–they have 21 young people who have a desire to pick each other up and keep working harder.

The rest of the good news is that the team is fairly young. Of the 21 runners only two are seniors, and both are men. Six of them are juniors, one who has never ran before, one who has trained all summer, and one who is a transfer from Loras that placed sixteenth last year at conference.

There are five sophomores, one of who placed in two track events last year. The number of freshmen equals the number of juniors and seniors combined. Yet all eight look very promising.

So if they retain their numbers for the next season, only two runners will be lost. Which means that while the Cross Country teams may be small now, they have a very promising out look for the future.