Huskers Begin Season at Augustana Twilight

The Nebraska cross country teams begin the 2015 season at the Augustana Twilight in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Friday at 8 p.m. at Yankton Trail Park.

Nebraska Women's Preview
The Nebraska women’s cross country team returns one of the top runners in the Big Ten in Anna Peer. After that, the Huskers have room for many of their young athletes to step up in 2015.
Peer, a junior from Bettendorf, Iowa, finished 14th at last year’s Big Ten Championships, a 36-spot improvement on her 50th-place finish as a freshman. Head Coach David Harris hopes Peer’s quick rise can serve as a great example for the young Husker squad, which features just one senior and seven freshmen.

“Anna is head and shoulders above the rest of our team right now, which is good in one way because we’ve got a leader, we’ve got a front-runner,” Harris said. “We’d like some more to obviously be closer to her, but after her, we’re still just very young and developing as athletes.”
Harris named Peer, a two-time most valuable runner for the Huskers, one of the team’s three captains for the 2015 season.

“She’s always been a quiet leader and she trains ahead of our group in every workout.,” Harris said. “She doesn’t hold herself back. She’s always pushing herself. The rest of the group has a very strong attitude with each other that we’re going to get better as a group. They respect her, but we have to get better as a group.”

The other captains are junior Kristi Oslund and senior Megan Lush, who returned for one more season while attending graduate school.

“The years that Megan’s been developing here after walking on to our team have been really good. She’s a great leader,” Harris said. “Kristi is always there and is very good with the young runners in helping them adjust and learn what kind of training program I have and is able to talk to them. So they all complement each other.”

Harris is hopeful that sophomore Bonnie Smith can make a big jump up the Big Ten leaderboard this season. Smith was the team’s most improved runner as a freshman last season and was NU’s No. 2 finisher and 83rd overall at the Big Ten meet.

“Bonnie is really having a good training,” Harris said. “I think she’s got it in her mind that she can be better. She’s one of the ones leading the group behind Anna.”

The Huskers were 13th at last year’s Big Ten Championships, but eight of their nine runners from that meet return this season. With seven freshmen joining the team and all eligible to race, Harris said there should be some great battles for a spot at the conference meet.

Nebraska Men's Preview
Going into last season, the Nebraska men’s cross country team knew it was going to be a challenging season. Junior Jacob Olson suffered a broken foot just before the season started and had to redshirt. Two other veterans - Matt Gilbert and Peter Spinks - also redshirted, as did talented freshman Wyatt McGuire, the 2013 Nebraska Gatorade Runner of the Year at North Platte.

But the 2015 season brings a new renewed sense of optimism. Olson, Gilbert, Spinks and McGuire are all set to race, and senior captain Nolan Border developed into one of the Huskers’ top runners by the end of last season, earning the team’s most improved runner award.

Head Coach David Harris said this year’s team chemistry and leadership will go a long way toward developing the young talent on the squad.

“We didn’t have all our firepower last year, so it is good to have all those guys back now,” Harris said. “They’re very effective in this group. I feel we have a much better group this year.”

Olson, a Kearney, Neb., native, was slated to be one of the Huskers’ top runners last year before his injury. He won the Tim Young Invitational as a sophomore in 2013 and was in Nebraska’s top five at every meet. Now a team captain along with Nolan Border, Olson has raised the level of training at practices.

“Jacob is the real key to our team,” Harris said. “He’s a captain and a leader. It’s really good to have him back training with the team. He’s such an influence as a hard worker. When he’s gone, we feel the leadership gone in many ways. So we really missed that last year. It took him a long time to come back from that injury, and it wasn’t until the outdoor track season that he even got to race again. So he’s really hungry as an athlete. I have to really watch him to make sure he doesn’t overtrain. But I hate to hold him back because he’s making up for lost time.”

The Huskers have three freshmen - Ryan Bates, Trent Classen and Eric Karl II - who could race for the Big Red.

Nebraska has finished 11th at each of the past four Big Ten meets. Harris said the program isn’t ready yet to climb to the top of the Big Ten, but he hopes the men can parlay their good team chemistry into a move up the ladder.

“We have to take small steps,” Harris said. “We’re on the bottom rung of the ladder now and we have to go up a step or two or three if we can. And that’s our goal.”