Men’s and women’s cross country are charting different paths to success in preparation for the Atlantic 10 Championship this weekend.

Members of both the men’s and women’s teams turned in strong individual performances at last year’s A-10 Championship, but both teams placed lower than they had in 2017. This year, the two squads are taking different approaches to the championship: The women’s team is looking to extend its success in an older group, and the men’s team is working to build a valuable championship pedigree.

Head coach Terry Weir said this year’s women’s team has a great chance of claiming the title given its amount of talent and experience in the program. He said despite the team’s low preseason ranking by other coaches, the squad has improved at every race this fall.

“I’d love for the girls individually and as a team, as a program, to go win an A-10 Championship,” Weir said. “But I’m just so proud of them. No one gave them a shot. Coaches ranked the team to finish ninth, and that’s certainly not going to happen this weekend.”

Through four meets this fall, the women’s team has recorded a top-five finish in three of them, including their second-place finish of 20 teams at the Princeton Invitational earlier this month. Weir, who is in his eighth season, described the women’s squad as the “best ever” and said their years of experience call for a mix of both physical and mental preparation.

“We weren’t really looking at outcomes as much as maybe being more patient in some of the races and trying to finish harder,” Weir said. “Some other races we went out hard and to see how we handled it. We talked and we’ve been working on a lot of our emotional control and keeping a level head during some of these races.”

Despite rostering its fewest number of runners since 2013, the women’s squad has found success both at the team and individual levels. Senior Suzanne Dannheim is one of those individuals, as she’s set the tone for the women’s squad with a historic season, winning both the Mason and Princeton invitationals in September and October, respectively.

Dannheim said the key to the team’s success Saturday rests with its ability to focus.

“We do have a lot of confidence as a team, and our progress so far is going to carry us through,” Dannheim said. “Since we don’t have a young team, we’re actually a pretty old team, that’s going to work to our benefit because we’re not amateurs.”

Reflecting on her own preparation for the championship, which will be her final A-10 cross country race, Dannheim said she has reached peak fitness and is determined to finish strong on Saturday.

“I’m more fit right now compared to the rest of the season so far and I haven’t really been able to show myself what that fitness can do,” Dannheim said. “That to me looks like, ‘There’s no way in hell I’m not letting myself get on that podium.’”

On the men’s side, Weir said six of the team’s seven runners competing for the A-10 Championship are freshmen after injuries and sickness derailed the seasons of several runners. With such a young group working toward the title, Weir said the emphasis is on allowing his runners to gain experience and improve their overall physical abilities.

“In high school, they only run a 5K for cross country, and it’s a big adjustment for the men going to college and running an 8K, or five miles,” Weir said. “So just getting used to the distance and being out there for a lot longer and really just trying to stay engaged, racing a lot longer, is what we’ve been trying to work on.”

[gwh_image id=”1102476″ credit=”Hatchet File Photo by Dean Whitelaw | Staff Photographer” align=”none” size=”embedded-img”]Women’s cross country is projected to perform better in the A-10 conference than the younger, less experienced men’s team.[/gwh_image]

Freshman James Glockenmeier said throughout the season, the team has looked for ways to capitalize on its intensified summer training regiments by “maintaining peak form” and staying healthy. Glockenmeier said the men’s team has not been able to avoid mounting injuries this season, but the younger team has grown together.

“Because we are all very new to it and we’ve been forming good chemistry throughout the year, I think one of the key factors to us competing well is going to be how we all work with each other during the race and finish together as a team,” Glockenmeier said.

The men’s squad finished in the top half in just one of its competitions this season. The team earned a 13th-place finish of 45 teams at the Paul Short Run Oct. 5.

Glockenmeier said the team is ready to “bring the energy” Saturday, when they plan to use their experience from other races this season to succeed.

“We’re really focused on going out there and doing what we have to do and competing with some of the big-name teams,” he said.

The Colonials will head to George Mason for the A-10 Championship Saturday. The races begin at 10 a.m.