The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Women's Cross Country's Sisson discusses the 2010 season
09.01.2010 | XC: Women_Old, Track & Field / Cross Country
Sept. 1, 2010
The 2009 season for the women's cross country team was a stellar one for the Longhorns as two individuals qualified for the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships and UT placed three runners in the top 20 at the NCAA South Central Regional.
Betzy Jimenez, who was a senior a year ago, finished second in the region to earn UT's first individual bid to the NCAA Championship since 2004. Then a few days later, Mia Behm found out she received an at-large bid to the championships after finishing 11th overall at the regional. Texas won three meets during 2009 and every runner set a PR over the course of the season.
Since then, the team has reloaded and with the return of junior Behm , sophomore Laleh Mojtabaeezamani and senior Allison Mendez, the Longhorns will be looking to be major contenders at the conference, regional and national level.
Part of Texas' hopes lie in a strong group of freshmen, highlighted by Marielle Hall out of Haddonfield, New Jersey. Hall is joined by a four-some from Texas in Jourdan Ellis, Sara Sutherland, Jessica Harper and Megan Siebert, who cross country coach Steve Sisson thinks will have an immediate impact for the Horns' team.
With the 2010 cross country season getting started this weekend at the Johnny Morris UH Invite, Sisson sat down with TexasSports.com to talk about this year's group and what he's looking forward to.
On overall thoughts about the 2010 team: I am, just like every coach is at the beginning of ever season, really excited about the girls that we currently have on the roster, the returners, the freshmen and the transfers. We've got a good group and I think that the thing I'm happiest about is the depth our team has, something we have been missing in the past. With four years of recruiting, finally we're able to start to get a very high quality athlete on the front end, and also a lot more depth.
On what is different about this season from years past: I guess the thing that's been most impressive is that I have 10 girls at this point in time further along as just three girls last year. Losing a Betzy (Jimenez) is a tough loss from having what we call in cross country a "low stick." She has been our low stick; second at the region is a really hard thing to beat. We're going to miss her a lot. What I've missed in the years past is a lot of depth, and so my returners have stepped up to come back in great shape, knowing what I expect and what they need to accomplish. So ten girls on a couple of workouts in front of where I had three girls last year is a good sign for us. That's part of cross-country, that's part of any sport. So what I'm seeing now is that I ought to have the depth come November to be competitive in the region, in the conference, and hopefully take the team to the NCAA Championships.
On the incoming class and who has been standing out: Well our class as a whole, if you take the freshman class first, we have Marielle Hall from New Jersey who was 18th at Foot Locker Nationals in cross country but really is more of a track athlete. She has amazing range, with a 2:07 half mile all the way up to just under 17 minutes for 5K which is really unusual, and also has an amazing work ethic. She understands what it takes to be competitive. Never in my collegiate career have I seen an athlete as driven as she is, so I'm very excited to be working with her. It's going to be a great four years with her.
We also have a group of four other freshmen who have been showing great promise in the early parts of training. One of them is from Abilene and the rest are from the Dallas area. Megan Siebert from Richardson High School, Sara Sutherland from Highland Park, and Jessica Harper from Southlake Carroll are all the Dallas girls, and then a really talented athlete from Abilene High School in Jourdan Ellis. That group of four seems to be training together, and two of those four, Megan and Sara, are running very well right now. In my twenty-girl field, they're in my top ten vying for the top seven right away, and learning a new program is going to be great for them.
On the two transfers: I also have Christina Henderson, who is a transfer from Columbia who did great things for them in cross country, is really a cross country specialist. She's only got one year of cross country eligibility, but she's very talented, she'll come along late in the season, and she brings to our team a leadership and a maturity that is needed for this team. Then I've got another transfer named Jordan Clark-Mand who is an 800m specialist that we're moving up to the 1500, and she's just come in and decided that she wants to be a cross country girl at Texas. She's went to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, (University of Wisconsin) Oshkosh, which is a Division-III school, and she's just really excited to make an impact on a major Division-I level team. Her coach at Oshkosh is a fantastic coach, highly regarded, but she's just excited.
On junior Mia Behm: Well I think you have to put Mia [Behm] in a different category after her track season. I think she had a good cross country season; the fact that she had a broken foot all through the summer and didn't really start running on the roads until September, and then was able to get an individual qualification to the NCAA Championships which was good. But we really saw what Mia was made of in running a 16-flat and being competitive at the NCAA Championships in the race itself. I think we're only going to see her get better this next cross country season.
On how the team is coming together: Mia is our top runner right now but Marielle Hall in our workouts already is running stride for stride, step for step, with her. So we have a one-two punch that I think very few people in our region can touch. In the conference, there are a few teams that can be competitive with us. We're also excited to have Laleh [Mojtabaeezamani] back. Not having her last season was a big loss for us and it left us without the depth that we really needed last year to be competitive. She had an amazing track season, scoring at the Big 12 Championships in the 10K event her first time. She's hungry, she wants this, she wants to be an impact person both in cross country and on the track. And then Allison Mendez was an All-Region qualifier in cross-country. She was in the top-18 and really came on strong at the end of the season. We've got a pretty good little team.
On where the program is after his first four years: Well I feel really good about it. I feel good from a fitness level. The girls seem to understand what it means to get in shape over the summer. We're talking about being fit enough to train, and the vast majority put themselves in a position to do that. But from that perspective, I'd like for everyone to look at our results in November to decide where this program has gone, This year I'd really like for our results to do the talking. I think we'll come on strong at the end of the season. I think that our conference and region performances should turn some heads, and I believe that we have a legitimate chance at being a team to go to the NCAA Championships. I think that I have two girls who have a legitimate chance at being All-American. Whether those things happen or not, time will tell. That, to me, would be an indicator of where our program is headed: two All-Americans in cross country and a team qualification to the NCAA Championships.