Marquette’s cross country team opens its season Sept. 4 at DePaul in the DePaul Opener. It’s an opportunity for the team to get its feet wet and race in a low-pressure situation, head coach Mike Nelson said.
The men will run a 4-mile race, while the women will compete in a 2.5-mile run. Nelson said four other teams will be competing in the meet, including DePaul, Loyola Chicago, Chicago State and, with a women’s-only team, Northwestern.
“This will get us back in the mode of racing,” junior Brice Cleland said.
Nelson said he has confidence in both teams and that he is cautiously optimistic for the upcoming meets.
“Injuries play a big role in this sport and the injury bug got us in past years,” Nelson said. “If we stay healthy, we can have a very deep team. The men are young, but they are strong, and the women have the chance to be one of the, if not the, strongest teams of the decade.”
The men’s team is very young, Cleland said, and his goal for the team is to improve from last year.
“My goal is to run my absolute best, whether that is as the No. 1 runner or the No. 15 runner,” senior Anna Weber said. “I’m happy with that and think the team can do amazing things if we all run our best.”
To prepare for the DePaul Opener, the team hosted the second annual Alumni Run and barbecue on Saturday. This event allowed the athletes and alumni to interact and get to know each other before the upcoming season, Nelson said.
“It was a time for the athletes to get to put a face to the names they’ve seen in the record books, as well as for the alums to put a face to the current athletes,” he said.  “It promotes the rich history and tradition of distance running that Marquette has.
“The event was a huge success and we look forward to continuing to grow it in the future.”
The 2-mile race was held at Bayview Park in St. Francis, and roughly 75 male and 40 female alumni finished – twice as many as last year. The race included distance and track alumni, Nelson said.
Cleland said trusting the coach is something he took away from talking to the alumni. He said the alumni’s opinions reinforced that Nelson was doing a good job.