ESU cross country coach Dave Harris has a tough time making any prediction this year about his team.
The Hornets top female runner is a freshman and six of the seven women on the team are underclassmen. But on the men’s side, there’s always one safe bet: Skyler Delmott will be ESU’s top runner. And Delmott is probably the one sure thing this Friday at the Jock’s Nitch Invitational at Jones Park.
Delmott is the defending champion at ESU’s only home meet and the Emporia native is comfortable on the team’s home course.
“We know all the turns, all the little ups and down hills, all the little surges to lose people or where to recover,” Delmott said, “and we just know exactly what to expect from our own course.”
The ESU men are also the defending team champions at the Jock’s Nitch Invitational. This year’s meet features 16 men’s teams and 20 women’s teams. Nebraska-Omaha is the only other Division II program and the rest of the field is made up of NAIA and junior college teams.
The ESU women finished second last year and Jonel Rossbach won the meet. Rossbach graduated and freshman Katie Mona has taken over the team’s top spot. Mona finished second at the Mule Run in Warrensburg, Mo. three weeks ago and has been the team’s top runner in all three events.
“I was told that I would be in the top three when he (Harris) was recruiting me, but I didn’t know I’d be the top,” Mona said. “It’s pretty neat, but we also have a really young team so we’re all pretty close together.”
The ESU women peaked last year at the home meet and then fell off the rest of the year because of injuries and some depth problems.
“I feel much better this year about the women’s group,” Harris said. “They’re very young and you come to practice and you don’t know what you’re going to get every day. It’s not like a veteran group where you understand them and know them. I’m still learning them and they’re still learning me.”
Mona, who is one of two freshman women, has had the biggest learning curve. She said she’s still adjusting to more of a team focus in college and she’s also had to adjust to the different distances in collegiate races.
The closest Hornet at the 2.5-mile Mule Run to Mona was Morgan Frehe, who finished 1:20 behind the freshman. Two weeks ago at the 3.7-mile Greeno Invitational in Lincoln, Neb., Mona beat Frehe by only 39 seconds.
“Katie’s so inexperienced, we don’t really know (what to expect),” Harris said. “We might get a great race out of Katie and then she might not know what she’s supposed to do in a race. Right now, I don’t think she knows where she should be in a race, but she’s had some really good efforts for us.
“But I think it’s that inexperience that scares me. I don’t know that they know where they should be in a race. I have to try to tell them.”
Harris does not have to worry as much about his men’s team with four upperclassmen and two seniors. Friday should act as a tune-up for the rest of the season.
The Hornet men have a chance to be one of the top teams in the MIAA if they stay healthy and Delmott continues his rise as one of the top runners in the conference.
“I think the men’s squad is kind of in that period of time where we don’t know how good we can be,” Harris said. “We could be second or third in this conference, we could be fifth or sixth in this conference. I don’t know.
“There’s a lot of good teams in our conference and that’s really what I’m starting to think about now with the conference meet less than four weeks away.”