As the Yellowjacket men’s and women’s cross country teams wrapped up their seasons in mid-November, expectations will be very high going into the Fall 2012 season as both teams will return their core group of runners.

“With the team as young as we were this year, we had a heck of a year,” commented Head Coach Glen Drexler. “The youth of the team really stepped up their efforts and realized what it takes to run at the collegiate level and surpassed many of the expectations I had of those freshmen, so realistically, next year should be a great year if we can really build from what we did this year.”

On the women’s side of things, the Yellowjackets will return their top two runners in Christina Micheletti and Kristen Jasperson, who were both able to hit 24 minute times this fall. “Christina Micheletti is really starting to find her stride and we’ll be looking for her and Kristen Jasperson to really lead the women’s team to new heights next year,” stated Drexler.

Drexler thinks that the program is headed in the right direction due to the individuals that have been brought in the past two years. “They motivate each other; they work hard and really want to move forward in not only our results, but who we are as a team as well.”

The men’s team will bring back everyone from this year as they had no seniors on the team. This next fall, the men may also see the return of Peter Vukelich, the second runner on the team from a year ago.

“Well, I expect the core we have from this year will continue to work as they have, if not harder,” expressed Drexler. “I think they’ll take the efforts to be ready to come into the season next August ready to work to achieve those goals.”