For both the Marquette men's and women's cross country teams, the 2008 season was one of constant fluctuation. While the men dealt with injuries and inexperience, the women battled through a fair amount of failure to meet expectations.

But as both teams struggled to find consistency throughout the season, so did both find triumphs projecting good things to come.

For the men, the story from the beginning was Kyle Saginus.

At the first meet of the season, the Big River Running Early Bird Invitational, the senior co-captain dominated the field on his way to winning the race by seven seconds.

It was a sign of things to come, as Saginus was Marquette's top finisher in every meet he ran.

At the Notre Dame Invitational, Saginus finished in 41st, then followed it up with a 63rd place finish at NCAA Pre-Nationals. At the Big East Championships on Oct. 31, Saginus' 12th place finish earned him All-Big East honors.

Although he finished his last Marquette cross country race 0.2 seconds away from qualifying for the NCAA Championships, Saginus said the quality of his entire season helped ease the disappointment.

"It was a very good season for me," Saginus said. "It's the best season I've ever had and I think one of the best seasons that anyone at Marquette has had in recent years. Overall I was very happy with the season."

But while Saginus took home the hardware, the rest of the young squad gained much needed experience that provided coach Mike Nelson with a positive outlook for the future.

"We had our ups and downs, but it was a very solid season," Nelson said. "We were very young, with lots of freshmen and sophomores, but for those guys this season was not just about success, it was a learning experience."

On the women's side, the team was led by a group of talented junior runners. Anna Weber, Jayne Grebinski and Amanda Beggs all provided solid leadership as well as consistency in the meets. Sophomore transfers Laurie Dalrymple and Olivia Johnson were also a huge boost to the team, as they solidified the final scoring spots needed for team success.

"Overall I think a lot of people had really great improvements from last season," Grebinski said. "One great thing was that we all made it through (the season) injury-free. Not all of us were necessarily healthy all the time, but some people really stepped up.

"We were going into season needing secure fifth and sixth runners, and we definitely found those runners."

Although Grebinski said that some of the top runners didn't exactly perform to their capabilities early on, Nelson believed the women finished the season the right way. She said she's looking forward to a team that returns every runner next year.

"We definitely ended on a very positive note," Nelson said. "We had run our best performance up until that point at the Big East Championships, then went out and ran even better at Regionals.

"We have no seniors so next year it's going to be nice to have leadership and a team stocked full of talent. There's not going to be anyone not contributing to the team."