Aug. 28, 2008
DaytonFlyers.com: Talk about the newcomers. What will they bring to the mix this year?
Coach Alyanak: We have three newcomers. They are Elissa Mason, Lindsey Cummings, and Emily Zimmerman. All three of them will be solid contributors to the team and they are all coming off of successful high school careers and were members of very successful high school teams. Elissa, Lindsey, and Emily have ran really well in the early season practices and have great attitudes and work ethics.
DaytonFlyers.com: Who will be major contributors this season?
Coach Alyanak: We return all of our top runners from last season which includes sophomores Maureen Bulgrin, Liz Coorey, and Brigitte Sherman, senior Anne Oltman, and junior Kate Tejkl. I expect all of them to be up front again but I think we have a number of other runners who are going to be in the mix to run in our top five. Jacqueline Jaworek is back this season after an injury and will run towards the front of the team. Ellen Nienhaus and Kristin Terry are coming off of very good track seasons and they should also make a push to be in our top five. Freshman Elissa Mason, should be right in there as well. I really think we will have a large pack running together and pushing each other and our top five to seven runners may be different at each meet. I am really excited about the depth of the team.
DaytonFlyers.com: Discuss the schedule.
Coach Alyanak: I feel we have a very good schedule this year and all the meets are going to be very competitive. New meets we are going to include the Queen City Invitational hosted by Northern Kentucky and the Pre-Nationals Invite at Indiana State. At every meet we are going to see very good teams and each one will help prepare us for the Atlantic 10 Championship. I am looking forward to attending Pre-Nationals because it has a definite championship feel to it and is just a great meet environment to get us ready for the championship races at the end of the season. Charlotte is hosting A-10s this season for the first time and it will be exciting to race at new venue.
DaytonFlyers.com: Talk about the teams in the Atlantic 10. Who do you think will be tough competition?
Coach Alyanak: The Atlantic 10 should be very competitive once again. I think that Richmond will be the team to beat. They have a great group of returners and some good newcomers. La Salle is always strong but they graduated quite a few of their top runners so it will be interesting to see how they run. Charlotte and Xavier should be solid teams again too. We will run against Xavier at quite a few meets before A-10s so this will be good for us to see how we stack up against them.
DaytonFlyers.com: What are the goals this season?
Coach Alyanak: The team probably had their best summer of training ever so we just need to keep building on this fitness and keep improving the entire season. I know the entire team is motivated to improve on our disappointing finish at the A-10 Championship last season. We need to keep working hard and stay healthy and I think we will see major improvements from last season. This is one of the first years where the majority of the team is upperclassmen and we have excellent senior leadership and this experience is really going to help us.
