TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Arizona State cross country team gets back to the grind for the 2016 season at the George Kyte Classic hosted by Northern Arizona at Buffalo Park in Flagstaff on Saturday, Sept. 3.
Entering his 13th season, head coach Louie Quintana plans to keep the team's focus this weekend and throughout the season on one stride at a time.
"Going into this weekend, we're just trying to get some work in at the early part of the season," said Quintana. "We'll have a specific plan to combat the 7,000-feet altitude and leave feeling healthy."
The Sun Devil men's squad features eight returning runners, three returning redshirts and two freshmen. For the women, the new faces out number the experienced athletes, with six freshmen versus five returners. The women's squad also features a junior transfer from Paradise Valley Community College and three coming off a redshirt season.
"On the men's side we have a pretty small roster -- so this weekend we'll hold out four guys that will end up challenging to be in our top seven. Technically we'll be running a 'B' team except for (senior) C.J. Albertson," said Quintana.
"On the women's side, it is a day-to-day, week-to-week analysis. Our expectations are really high, but we're still waiting to make sure we get everyone back healthy. Sam (Ortega) is coming off a pretty major injury, so we're being cautious with her as our top returning runner. She likely won't open up until Terra Haute, Ind., and while she's running currently, it won't be until the middle of October until she's back to herself. We're excited about Chelsey (Albertson), as her improvement has been through the roof. A lot of the freshmen girls are also running really well, but we have zero learning curve -- they're going to have to just come in and go to work."
As far as expectations, the big picture is learning from the past to help the present, and Quintana knows has seen how things will need to shake out for the Devils to make it back to the NCAA Championships.
"For the men, last fall was just a bummer in all sense of the word," he said. "Our focus this year is to build great momentum throughout the season and redeem ourselves from last fall. We don't have a specific goal in mind, as you can set yourself up for having some unrealistic expectations, especially when you have four schools in your conference ranked in the top eight in the nation. Seven of the nine in the Pac-12 made the national meet out of 32 total teams. We'd like to build enough momentum to be in contention to qualify at the regional meet this year. We will try to stay on track and be in the top six in our conference."
Quintana expects the women's team to be the young guns in the conference, and one not to sleep on. But that will take contributions from each freshman throughout the three-month season.
"All of the freshmen that have been brought in will contribute throughout the season at some point," he said. "We will run Courtney Lewis and Megan Reniewicki this weekend, but all of them will suit up at some point this fall. We have some interchangeable parts, which is good."
The men's 4.5-mile race will begin at 1:30 p.m. (PT) on Saturday at Buffalo Park, with the women's 2.6-mile trek following at 2:30 p.m. (PT). The meet will feature the No. 3 Lumberjack men and unranked women, Arizona, Grand Canyon, UNLV women's team, Western New Mexico and several other community colleges.
Entering his 13th season, head coach Louie Quintana plans to keep the team's focus this weekend and throughout the season on one stride at a time.
"Going into this weekend, we're just trying to get some work in at the early part of the season," said Quintana. "We'll have a specific plan to combat the 7,000-feet altitude and leave feeling healthy."
The Sun Devil men's squad features eight returning runners, three returning redshirts and two freshmen. For the women, the new faces out number the experienced athletes, with six freshmen versus five returners. The women's squad also features a junior transfer from Paradise Valley Community College and three coming off a redshirt season.
"On the men's side we have a pretty small roster -- so this weekend we'll hold out four guys that will end up challenging to be in our top seven. Technically we'll be running a 'B' team except for (senior) C.J. Albertson," said Quintana.
"On the women's side, it is a day-to-day, week-to-week analysis. Our expectations are really high, but we're still waiting to make sure we get everyone back healthy. Sam (Ortega) is coming off a pretty major injury, so we're being cautious with her as our top returning runner. She likely won't open up until Terra Haute, Ind., and while she's running currently, it won't be until the middle of October until she's back to herself. We're excited about Chelsey (Albertson), as her improvement has been through the roof. A lot of the freshmen girls are also running really well, but we have zero learning curve -- they're going to have to just come in and go to work."
As far as expectations, the big picture is learning from the past to help the present, and Quintana knows has seen how things will need to shake out for the Devils to make it back to the NCAA Championships.
"For the men, last fall was just a bummer in all sense of the word," he said. "Our focus this year is to build great momentum throughout the season and redeem ourselves from last fall. We don't have a specific goal in mind, as you can set yourself up for having some unrealistic expectations, especially when you have four schools in your conference ranked in the top eight in the nation. Seven of the nine in the Pac-12 made the national meet out of 32 total teams. We'd like to build enough momentum to be in contention to qualify at the regional meet this year. We will try to stay on track and be in the top six in our conference."
Quintana expects the women's team to be the young guns in the conference, and one not to sleep on. But that will take contributions from each freshman throughout the three-month season.
"All of the freshmen that have been brought in will contribute throughout the season at some point," he said. "We will run Courtney Lewis and Megan Reniewicki this weekend, but all of them will suit up at some point this fall. We have some interchangeable parts, which is good."
The men's 4.5-mile race will begin at 1:30 p.m. (PT) on Saturday at Buffalo Park, with the women's 2.6-mile trek following at 2:30 p.m. (PT). The meet will feature the No. 3 Lumberjack men and unranked women, Arizona, Grand Canyon, UNLV women's team, Western New Mexico and several other community colleges.