Four of the seven top runners on the women’s cross country team are in their final season at SU. For a team that has had a tremendous season thus far, this may sound debilitating, but returning runners remain optimistic.

A core group of three young, talented runners — junior Sarah Pagano and freshmen Shaylyn Tuite and Jessie Petersen — will have to pick up the slack after the four depart.

‘We will kind of have to reform or regroup as a team since we are losing three seniors next year,’ Tuite said. ‘But I definitely think we can be the team we are now and even better.’

Lauren Penney, Heather Stephens and Rebekah MacKay will race for their final time on Nov. 21 at the NCAA Championship. Penney is the team’s top finisher in every race this season, and Stephens has contributed as a scorer at every meet. MacKay, a graduate student who redshirted last year due to injury, has also been a consistent runner for the Orange. Even though Syracuse will be losing a core of good runners, head coach Chris Fox said that by developing young runners, the future could be even brighter.

Tuite said that some good runners are currently being recruited, and if those girls can do what they are doing in high school once they arrive at Syracuse, then the team has a chance at reaching the podium at nationals within the next three years.

‘We have so much depth on this team right now,’ Stephens said. ‘From the eighth to 20th girl on the team, we have a ton of people that are fighting out for a spot. I think they are building a great base right now, and they’re only going to get stronger from here on out.’

Fox and his coaching staff thought next year was going to be a slight rebuilding year. But after the performance of Tuite and Petersen this year, his thoughts changed.

‘We thought maybe next year we would fall off a little bit because we have so many seniors,’ Fox said. ‘With Sarah Pagano back, who’s running great, and Shaylyn and Jessie as kind of the core, we should be almost just about as good as we are this year.’

Fox said at first he was a little nervous about running two true freshmen — Tuite and Petersen — in his top seven because of their lack of experience. But even with the amount of pressure they’ve faced, they have been competitive all year.

He projected that if things keep going the way they are, Tuite, who Fox said is one of the two best freshmen runners in the country, will lead the Orange women to the national championship podium by her junior or senior year.

With two races left in this season, the current team is still looking to defend its NCAA Northeast Regional title and make a solid effort at nationals to send the three seniors out on a high note.

Fox said the team should finish first or second at regionals next Saturday to send them to nationals. In nationals, he wants SU to be Top 10 or better.

Providence will be a threat at the regional level after placing second at the Big East championship last weekend. The Friars were 29 points ahead of Syracuse, which tied for fourth with West Virginia.

‘I think it would be ideal, obviously, to defend our title as a team, but we have Providence who’s in our region, and they are a lot better this year,’ Stephens said. ‘It’s more important to beat them at nationals, which is what we really want to do this year.’

During the off week, SU will continue to train hard until the end of the weekend and then begin cutting back on mileage and resting up for a highly competitive race that will determine its fate for the NCAA Championship.

‘We all have had good races at different points,’ Tuite said. ‘I think that if we can pull together and have good races on the same day, then we will run really well at regionals and nationals.’

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Published on November 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm