BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The WKU Cross Country team made notable strides in its first season under the program's new leadership, with a reinvigorated focus on distance running from first-year Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Brent Chumbley and his staff.
"I think the cross country team really bought in to what we are trying to do and I think they bought in early," said Chumbley. "I think the team saw a new energy and focus and commitment to distance running that they haven't necessarily felt in the past. That's just a matter of really having the right staff and people around. Everybody on this staff is interested in what the distant runners are doing and everybody wants the distance runners to do well."
Though the cross country team hasn't performed up to their standards in recent years, the program has a rich tradition and winning history. The men's and women's teams have combined for a total of 32 conference championships dating back to 1978, with both teams taking home the conference crown as recently as 2011.
"We've worked really hard to reach out to our alumni," said Chumbley. "We're doing that because there is a rich tradition here and you have to get that excitement back. That excitement can come from alumni, and it comes from the current students. It's about having that buzz and that excitement back into the program and back into cross country to where everybody is as important as everybody else."
Chumbley believes he has put the right staff around him to re-ignite that growth in the cross country program and distance running group, as well the indoor and outdoor track and field program, emphasizing the importance of putting equal effort into each phase of these programs.
"What we are trying to do as a staff is trying to put everybody on the same level," said Chumbley. "There's no event group that's more important than the other. I like to think what we have done is we have put together a staff where all of the event groups have strong coaches so that I can expect strong performances out of every group instead of just one or two. I think the staff that I have kind of gives me the comfort and expectation that we all need to be able to produce. So, I think we're just changing the expectations and the culture to include everybody a little bit more."
Part of that staff includes Cross Country Head Coach Tim Sykes, who was excited by the opportunity to work with a young, but hungry, group of student-athletes.
"I knew there would be some challenges coming in based on the history of the program in terms of just needing to make some improvements in a short period of time," said Sykes. "But, I also looked at the roster and it seemed like there was a solid group of young men and women that was already in place on the distance side that I would have the opportunity to work with. That's what I always like to focus on; whether you have the most elite student-athletes to work with, or you have developmental student-athletes and everything in between, you really just hone in on that group and show them you care and you really invest in them. So, regardless of the recent past history of the distance program, I knew that it would be an opportunity for me to help the culture continue to progress and help the results continue to improve."
One of Sykes' areas of emphasis during training was increasing the team's mileage to improve the groups conditioning and endurance for not only the cross country season but the upcoming track and field seasons as well.
"I think some of Coach Sykes' ideas for workouts and ideas for mileage really helped all of us grow," said sophomore Clint Sherman. "He's looking towards the future by giving us more mileage and really providing us with better workouts that will also help us for specific events in track."
"He's given us specific mileage for each week and what we want to build up to, and I think just having that added mileage has helped us too," said junior Savannah Heckman. "The mileage has changed drastically from last year. The guys were at about 40 miles last year and I think the guys have been up close to 75 or 80 miles and we have been around 60, so that's definitely made a big change."
The new training regimen payed off, as many individuals on both the men's and women's side saw vastly improved times throughout the course of the season. Of the 20 overall student-athletes that competed this year, 18 runners recorded personal-records in the 2019 season.
To put things into even better perspective; of the five women that competed in both the season-opener and Conference USA Championship, every runner recorded improved times of at least 49 seconds, with an average improvement of 1:57 across all five runners.
Of the eight men who competed in the team's first 8k of the season and the C-USA Championship, all eight improved their times by at least 47 seconds, and had an average improvement of 1:40 across each of the eight runners.
"One of our goals was to improve our conference championships team-place from last year," said Sykes. "The men were ninth last year out of 11 teams, and this year we moved up to seventh as a team. On the women's side, we finished in the same place as we did last year. Although we were somewhat disappointed there, we also kept things in perspective that the women improved significantly in their times and they really left it all out there on the course that day."
The teams' hard work throughout the season culminated in WKU's first appearance in the NCAA Regional Championships in years. With seven men and two women traveling to Charlottesville, Va., to compete at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships, it marked the first time the program had sent runners to Regionals since 2016, and the first time WKU had a team competing at the event since 2015.
The Regional Championships were a great learning experience for the team, and although they didn't finish with the results they were hoping for, the squad is using it as motivation for the future.
"We just wanted to get that championship experience," said Sykes. "The experience was really awesome for the men and the women that got to compete. They really had a good perspective, upon leaving, of what it takes to run at that level. We know it will be very beneficial for them moving forward in terms of having that experience this year with the team being very young and then continuing to progress into indoors, outdoors and then the fall cross country season next year."
"It was a great experience," said Heckman. "It was definitely eye opening to see some of the other teams out there because it was definitely more competitive than most of the other races we'd been in this season. But, it was good to see where we could possibly get to next year, especially with the possibility of bringing a full women's team next year and seeing where the guys started so we could improve more."
The coaching staff has put in a strong foundation to build upon while laying out their expectations for this cross country program and what's to come, and the student-athletes have been working hard to fulfill the vision that has been put in place by everyone involved with the program.
Building a new culture takes time, but the pieces are starting to be put in place.
"Culture is everything when it comes to college cross country and track and field teams," said Sykes. "I would say that's probably the most important characteristic of our men's and women's distance squad. They have a really strong, positive culture. They're just young men and women of good character; which has been, in my mind, the thing that's been the most fun to work with. They're very coachable and they want to get better - they bought in to the idea of getting a little better each day."
"I know these men and women have been through a lot of changes in the past 12 or 18 months," said Chumbley. "But they have done a fantastic job with it and I expect them to always do a fantastic job with it because they are serious about running and they are helping set the tone for the entire program, and they need to know that expectation is there."
"I think throughout the season it was pretty noticeable that the coaching staff really cared for us and cared about our success," concluded Sherman. "So, I think it was a good season and we're ready to move on to indoor and outdoor track and see what we can do."
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