On Saturday, the Southwestern men's and women's cross country teams will open an abbreviated season with a meet hosted by the University of St. Thomas in Tomball, Texas. 

With an entire athletics schedule condensed into just one semester, the cross country teams must hit the ground running with a week of workouts before the first meet. From there, the sport that is more marathon than sprint will race to its conference championship meet on Feb. 6. 

"There isn't enough time between our tuneup meet at St. Thomas and the SCAC Championships to make a lot of adjustments, so really that first meet is just going to be more of a time trial to see where we're at," Head coach Steven Cary said. "The conference meet is going to be a rust-buster for a lot of teams who haven't raced in over a year. We're going to try and make the most of it. We're excited to race, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel." 

In Cary's first season running the program last year, the priority was establishing a new culture for a young men's team, and a women's roster left with just two available runners at one point. Being separated by the pandemic during the spring and kept socially distanced through the fall provided obstacles for that culture, which the Pirates masterfully cleared. 

"By the time we hit January or February last year, we had one of the best team cultures I'd been a part of in a long time. They really believed in what we were doing and the values of our program, and that's when the big stuff starts happening," Cary said. "Our men and women consider this a family. Even though we weren't able to get together for meals, game nights, or the other usual things we'd do to strengthen our bonds, the team found ways to interact with each other and keep morale up." 

The COVID restrictions in the fall provided obstacles all athletics programs had to face, but Cary and the cross country teams also viewed them as opportunities. 

"You can choose to be positive or choose to be negative. There are a lot of things out of your control, but your mindset is a choice you make when you wake up," Cary said. "How are you going to approach your day? Will you take it head-on, give 100 percent, and win the day? Or will you go through it halfway and just coast? Those two choices, that's going to dictate how you live your life." 

Southwestern used the knowledge that it would not be competitively racing in the fall to vary its training in ways it usually wouldn't be able to in a regular year. 

Cary broke the semester up into two parts to break up the monotony of a fall semester with no competition. In the first half, he separated his long and middle-distance runners, having the latter work on aerobic development and the former developing their speed. 

"I took our long-distance runners and cut their mileage in half to work on their speed development," Cary said. "Towards the end, we did some max velocity stuff and even dabbled a little bit in speed endurance. We did time trials before and after. I will say the results speak for themselves. It was impressive to see how much the average improvement was for both teams." 

After that first six-week block of training concluded, Cary gave his team a week off. What he saw in their return was a testament to the culture the team is building. 

"I had them take a week of not practice, just some light strength training to keep them going," Cary said. "What was really cool is when we came back, I asked them if they enjoyed their time off, and they said it was fun for a day but they missed being around the group so much, they were ready to get back to practice." 

The winter break posed another challenge for the team, relying on personal accountability to physically prepare for a quick racing return. Southwestern cleared that obstacle, too, as exemplified by sophomore Noah Dennis. 

"Noah's a very motivated guy. He trained hard in the fall and reached out to me a lot in the winter," Cary said. "He'd send me a workout he'd done and ask for my thoughts. I think he's a feedback kind of guy. He started training at a later age relative to other guys at this level, had a great freshman year, and really wants to know how to get better." 

Dennis had two first-place finishes last season, winning the Concordia Tornado Watch Invitational and the Pirate Invitational. He also finished 12th at the OLLU Saints Invitational and was the Pirates' top finisher at last year's SCAC Championships with a time of 29:02. 

"He's one of the future faces of this program. He's going to be a leader with us for a couple of years, and he owns it," Cary said. "He's the guy you want out there meeting recruits. He's a part of that because of how much he loves the school and he loves our team and wants to see it evolve, progress, and get better."

For now, the pressure to lead isn't all-encompassing for the sophomore due to the presence of a pair of juniors in CP Shaulis and Nathan Botros. 

"Those guys are phenomenal. They're ambassadors for the program and this university. They carry the torch for the team," Cary said. "CP is the guy everyone turns to pick his brain. He leads our warmups because he's just one of those very organized people who is very intentional in everything he does. And Nathan, he's in the best shape of his life and you can see how he carries himself differently this year, how he works out differently. I love how passionate they are, and I'm looking for them to do some big things." 

The team also returns junior Doug Ginsberg and sophomore Vincent Kim while welcoming freshman Adrian Washington. 

"Adrian is a talented athlete. He played multiple sports in high school and he's a really good long-to-middle distance sprinter," Cary said. "He's just starting in cross country, so right now it's just about going out there, enjoying his time with the team and racing. But being there, working on his craft, working on racing, it will all translate to his time on the track." 

On the women's side, after a year with only two runners, this season serves as something of a reset for the on the women's side program. 

"If you ask our women from last year, they'll tell you, they're just thankful to have a team," Cary said. "They're phenomenal women with a lot of character, you couldn't ask for a better group. They care deeply about each other and have bought into everything we're trying to accomplish." 

Emma Pertuit has significantly benefited from the team environment. After pacing the women's team for most of last season with a pair of top-five finishes, placing third at the Concordia Tornado Watch Invitational and second at the Pirate Invitational, she is preparing for an even greater season as a sophomore. 

"Pertuit is in phenomenal shape, way ahead of where she was a year ago," Cary said. "She credits the training and having people push her. She's a very competitive person who runs to the ability of the people around her. If there's someone ahead of her, pushing her, she'll elevate herself to meet that level. She's someone I'm going to be looking at to score some points for us at the conference meet." 

After participating in the United States Marine Corps Officer Training Program last summer, Sophomore Lauren Calzado returns, translating the experience into being an essential voice on the team. 

"She's stepped up as a leader," Cary said. "From a leadership standpoint, she's been great, reaching out to the team and checking on them. She still has some areas she can improve on, but she's someone who wants to get better constantly." 

Junior Emma McCandless returns as the lone upperclassman, bringing a work ethic no one can question. 

"She's one of the most positive members of the team. She loves the idea of the team and having the group," Cary said. "Coming off an injury, she's someone who wants to get better. I almost have to put the reins on her to slow down, but you'd rather have that than someone you have to plead with to work. Her mindset is in the right place, and she does a great job of bringing the team together."

Joining the team are freshmen Laura Carrasco Torres, Giselle Kennison, Corinne Johnson, and Morgan Kos. 

"Laura has been a great person to have around. She's great at balancing things. She's competitive in practice, but she's also that person who will put their arm around a teammate after a workout," Cary said. "Giselle is a newcomer to the sport, so her training age is young, and she's continuing to get better every time we go out." 

Johnson and Kos were teammates at James Bowie High School. 

"Morgan is someone I'm excited about. She's been pushing Pertuit in practice. She's a talented individual with a great mindset who is an awesome human being," Cary said. "Corinne has potential. In practice, she does great running. I think the key is going to be keeping her focused. Running is such a mental sport, and it takes time. She could be a top-five runner for us this season and moving forward."

The season will come and go in a flash, but with a roster full of underclassmen and no seniors, this roster still has the long term in mind. 

"This is the future of the program, right now," Cary said. "The face you see will be here for two or three years. Wherever we end up this season, that's a stepping stone to where we're headed down the road. We'll use this year to see what we need to do over the next year or two to get where we want to be, which is to be competing for conference championships."