Alaska Nanooks cross-country prepping for 2013 campaign
August 28, 2013
Chris Brooks
907-474-6805
The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's cross-country programs are stocked full of new talent but 10th-year head coach Scott Jerome will rely on veteran leadership to guide these youthful squads into the 2013 racing season.
The men's roster is made up of a mixture of rookies to seniors and the likes of senior Tux Seims (Homer, Alaska/civil engineering), junior Kenneth Brewer (Chugiak, Alaska/biological sciences) and redshirt sophomore Ross MacDougall (Astoria, Ore./foreign language) will be relied on to lead the harriers this season.
Freshmen Mitch Burgess (Temecula, Calif./petroleum engineering), Tal Norvell (Douglas, Alaska/film) and Keegan Rankin (El Paso, Texas/geological engineering) are notable freshmen expected to make strides on the trails this year.
On the women's side, senior Alyson McPhetres (Chugiak, Alaska/foreign language and geological engineering) is the lone senior and will be the leader of the women's team that has nine incoming freshmen. Of the new faces, Dorothy O'Donnell (Fairbanks, Alaska/elementary education) and Kali Striker (Midlothian, Va./biological sciences) will play key roles in growing the future of the women's program.
The Nanooks reported to campus last week and had their first practice, along with other training sessions. This Friday, the student-athletes will head to Ester to run up Ester Dome in their annual training exercise that the coaching staff will look for aerobic power and how they perform on a course. Unlike most any race during the season, the Ester Dome race is a five-kilometer uphill battle.
"We're really going to find out who is fit and who did their homework over the summer," Jerome said. "So far, based on the 3,000, it looks like we have the beginnings of a legit cross country team. We need to follow through with our training year, make sure they're doing what they need to do in the offseason so we don't start at square one come next year."
The Great Northwest Athletic Conference released the 2013 preseason coaches' poll Tuesday afternoon and the men were selected eighth while the women were slated ninth, which is primarily based on last year's conference finish and the amount of newcomers. But Jerome and the Nanooks don't take this poll seriously because in the end, they only have control over themselves.
"We preach every day that we can only control our actions and we can't control other people and what they do and what they think," Jerome said when asked about preseason rankings. "We can certainly control our thoughts and our actions, so we're going to go out and train, compete and just let the chips fall."
Alaska opens the season Sept. 5 and 7 when it hosts GNAC foes Montana State Billings and Seattle Pacific for the Alaska Cross Country Classic, which will be ran at West Ridge Trails on campus.
Jerome Season Preview Video