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Tigers running toward state bids
Maybe the hardest working and most overlooked team in the fall sports season is the cross country team.
The Nevada Tiger cross country team started preparing for the 2005 season early in the summer, running three times a week early in the morning on jaunts all over the city of Nevada.
Even so, coach Robert Watts said the team is still working to prepare for the 2005 season.
"We're trying to get into shape," Watts said. "There were some who ran during the summer, but there were a few who decided just the other day to come out."
The team starts their competitive season Tuesday with a meet in Joplin.
The numbers this season are way up. After dealing the past few seasons with a team in the low teens, Watts has 21 athletes who decided to be harriers in 2005.
"The goal is to continue to get the program to grow," Watts said. The coach lost Bill and Jim Fay for this season because they moved to Minnesota. He said he talked with them recently and found out their cross country team has over 50 members.
"That would be nice," Watts said. "But I don't want to pull athletes from any other program."
With seven runners making up a varsity lineup, Watts said the team has settled on the the likely top-five runners going into the season.
The lead runner will undoubtedly be senior Mason Benn.
Benn was the only Tiger harrier to qualify for state in 2004, and he also spent part of the summer competing in Australia as a representative of the United States.
Watts is looking at Benn to be a leader for the team, and Benn has been following through.
"I know that he knows what it's like to run (at state). He scares the others with his stories," Watts said.
The second runner to start the season will be senior Curtis Davis. Davis has varsity experience from last season.
The third runner appears to be senior Darren Chapman. He is followed by Mark Reed, a junior, and sophomore Trevor Hinkle.
The sixth and seventh runners on the varsity have yet to be decided.
"We'll figure that out Tuesday," Watts said. He is using the results from the Joplin meet to decide who will get the first shot at the sixth and seventh spots.
"I think the top four or five are pretty solid from last year," Watts said.
The team also has two girls running this season. Senior Cassie Driskel and junior Vanessa Hancock will be competing in the girls' races this fall for Nevada.
Also tagging along with the high school team is one middle school runner -- Todd Brier. Brier, an eighth-grader, is the only member of the middle school team and he trains with the high school athletes.
Watts said the goal this season is to "get as many (runners) through to state as possible."
Giving Nevada an advantage when it comes to possibly qualifying for state is that the district meet will once again be held locally.
As it was last season, the district championships will be held at Marmaduke Park.
"It gives us a lot of an advantage," Watts said. "We've already run the course twice (this preseason)."
In addition to hosting districts, the team will hold a regular season meet at Marmaduke Park on Oct. 20.