The women’s cross country team may have graduated four of its runners, but that won’t stop the current squad members from trying to capture the program’s first MAC Title since 2004. The Daily Kent Stater spoke to lone senior Audrey Maheu about the upcoming season.

Q: What are you looking forward to most this season?

A: It’ll be nice to get to know the new freshmen and to improve on last season. And hopefully finish out my cross country career strong; it’s my last one. A first place finish in the conference would be great.

Q: Tell me about how you ended last season?

A: We had ups and downs. We didn’t finish on as high a note as we would’ve liked to. We sold ourselves kind of short at conference (meet), so we’re working toward bettering ourselves this year. We’re going to use that as motivation.

Q: You’re the sole senior on the team. Where do you think leadership is going to come from this year?

A: I don’t think you have to be a senior to be a leader. I think you can come in as an underclassman and lead by example, by encouraging your teammates and doing the little things right — not cutting any of the corners at practice. I don’t think you have to be the oldest on the team to lead people. It’s about motivation and having a good attitude; that shows a lot of leadership in itself.

Q: How did the team handle being separated for the summer?

A: There’s a couple of us that are local to each other and we can meet a couple of times over the summer, get a run in, workout together or just hang out. But it makes being reunited together here special. It brings us closer together after the summer.

Q: How do you think the team will come out for your first meet of the season?

A: It’s too soon to tell about myself personally. It’s hard to gauge where I come off from my summer training. Once we start training as a team together we’ll get some workouts in as a team and I think it’ll boost our confidence and get us really motivated.

I try not to focus on the first meet too much just because there’s so much time in between the first meet and the conference meet, which really matters.

Q: Do you and your teammates have any traditions to start out the season?

A: We come back a couple days before classes. It’s a nice time to hang out; we’ll do a couple team dinners or go to a movie or something. It’s a great time to have fun together before school starts — bring the team together and get to know the freshmen.

Contact Summer Kent Stater editor Julie Sickel at [email protected].