Over the offseason the Ohio State cross country team hired both a new head coach and director. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
The Ohio State cross country program went through an offseason under a new director for the first time in 20 years.
After Rosalind Joseph replaced retiring director Karen Dennis, the men’s and women’s cross country teams went into the 2022 season with a lot of uncertainty.
Joseph retained the 2021 staff — including promoting Sara Mason Vergote to head coach. Vergote said the program is ready to establish itself as a contender not only in the Big Ten, but nationally.
“I’ve worked closely with coach Joseph over the years,” Vergote said. “The transition has been incredibly easy. There’s a large degree of trust within our staff. I’m really grateful for the opportunity, and I’m excited to show people what this program can do.”
Working with the team during the offseason, Vergote said she will work to maintain the same philosophy as previous seasons, which places a strong emphasis on group running and saving energy for the races.
To emphasize the philosophy of running as a team, third-year women’s runner Addie Engel, who finished first in both the Mike Baumer Cross Country Classic on Sept. 2 and the Big Ten Preview Friday, said it gives her comfort knowing her teammate is right next to her.
“It gives another aspect of comfort,” Engel, the reigning U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Athlete of the Week, said. “When you’re racing, and you have a teammate right next to you to push you, that’s there for you.”
Engel said the group has “a lot of strong returners coming back,” and this year’s freshmen are great additions to the team.
Engel’s sentiment was confirmed as the women’s team finished first and second in the Mike Baumer and Big Ten Preview races, respectively. Vergote said the women were trying to get a baseline for what they can accomplish this season from the first race.
“We raced pretty conservatively,” Vergote said. “We’re working on some organizing tactics in terms of running more together as a team. We only graduated one woman out of our top-five from last year. That’s a pretty good group of seasoned veterans.”
On the men’s side, the team also finished first at the Mike Baumer Classic and finished fifth in the Big Ten Preview. Notably, the men’s top-five finished within 15 seconds of each other in both races.
With the philosophy of “pack running” applied to both the men’s and women’s teams, sophomore runner Sean Carney said there are benefits to running next to familiar people, and he thinks it gives the Buckeyes an advantage during races.
“When we start to hurt out there, we can look to either side and see our teammates,” Carney said. “I think that’s a very underrated benefit of running in a pack. We basically carry over the same exact philosophy Vergote would tell us.”
Vergote said the team is still evaluating the strengths of each runner, so they have a better idea of what to expect when the postseason comes around.
“I’m still trying to identify who the leaders of that are going to be,” Vergote said. “A big part of it is getting these guys to understand that we’re a much better team than having seven runners run seven individual races.”
Although successful early on, the team isn’t looking to expend 100 percent of its energy with the early-season meets, Engel said. While the Buckeyes have nationally successful runners like Engel, she said they aren’t worried about individual success early in the season.
“I would say I definitely have to save up a little bit for later on in the season,” Engel said. “I also think it’s really helpful at the beginning of the season to stick together with my teammates and pull each other through and race together.”
