In a rebuilding year where they look to improve upon a 4th place finish for the men and a 3rd place finish for the women, the cross country teams have brought in many new faces to strengthen an already young team. With thirteen men and seven women new to the roster, the future is bright for Mary Washington Cross Country.
The men's roster has been bolstered considerably by athletes who have focused on the longer distance events. Germanna Community College transfer Kyle Pfohl has had strong success on the local road racing circuit, and looks to quickly make contributions this fall, while focusing on the 5k and 10k in track this spring. Joining him on the longer distance squad will be Michael Rivera, Stephen Tivenan, and Drew Park who all hail from high schools with storied distance programs. These three true distance specialists will look to make their mark on a team loaded with talent at the shorter distance events.
Molly Garthwaite and Hailey Hopkins have both tried their hands at the half marathon distance on the roads and are looking to fill in the top seven for cross country. They are joined by Rosie Kostka who was a scoring runner for a strong Tuscarora High School squad.
Joining the middle distance squad are freshmen Austin Jones, Grant Mitchell, Yonathan Eshetu, and Joey Cronin. After making great strides in their high school careers these 1,000m-3200m specialists will look to make an impact this fall, while finding ways to score points at the collegiate distances this spring. Joining this group will be Coastal Carolina University transfer Jarrett Ashby who is coming off a year of huge improvements.
The women add two new faces to the middle distances, with Kristy White and Briana Gralia looking to find their place around the strong returning core. Both White and Gralia were specialists in the 1600 in high school and look to find their niche at the collegiate level.
Rounding out the men's cross country team is a phenomenal group of half milers who look to write new history in one of UMW's strongest events. Scott Black and Cameron Coates are coming off of strong senior campaigns which produced All-State and All Region performances. Joining Black and Coates are John Marshall Gillum and Alec Biles who both look to make a splash in their first year of collegiate running.
Finally the women's team adds two 800m runners in Hannah Huggins, and University of Hawaii at Menoa Transfer Ava Robb-McCord. Huggins and Robb-McCord come in with similar personal bests, and will be working to build on the success UMW saw at the two lap event last year.
Head Coach Kunle Lawson is excited to bring in a robust class that increases the team's depth. When asked about his thoughts on the class he said, "I'm very happy with the class we brought in this year. Not only is it a group full of enthusiastic hard workers, but this group will lay the foundation for building an even stronger and more successful team in years to come."