Hokie ClubBy Jimmy Robertson
The sport of cross country rarely gets a lot of publicity or even attention from the general public, but eyes will be on the Virginia Tech men's cross country program this fall.
The season starts Friday with the Virginia Tech Invitational at the Buford Meredith Cross Country Course. No fans are allowed to attend the meet – a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic – but the action starts with the women's 6K race at 5:15 p.m., followed by the men's 8K race.
For the first time in four seasons, the Tech men's team will line up without Peter Seufer, arguably the best distance runner in program history.
Seufer graduated this past spring and took with him an impressive list of collegiate accomplishments. He was a two-time ACC champion and two-time All-American in cross country, and his fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships last November marked the highest ever finish for a Tech men's distance runner at an NCAA meet.
Seufer was a big reason why the Hokies excelled as a team last fall. Tech finished 17th at the NCAA Championships – its best finish since coming in fourth in 1987. Also, Tech finished second at the NCAA Southeast Region meet, tying for its best finish since winning the regional in 1987, and the Hokies came in third at the ACC Championships. Seufer won the individual regional title to go with his ACC crown.
So who replaces Seufer in the Hokies' lineup? Great question, according to distance coach Eric Johannigmeier.
"Certainly, Peter is a hard runner to replace, and I don't think you directly replace him," Johannigmeier said. "We've talked with our men, and we feel like we have a really good core group and a lot of good depth. While we might not be able to directly replace Peter's score as a low stick, maybe between a group of guys, we can kind of move up. That's kind of our hope."
Fitsum Seyoum, the lone senior on the men's team, figures to be the Hokies' pace setter. He enjoyed a stellar junior season, earning All-ACC honors after finishing 11th at the ACC Championships, and he earned all-region honors after coming in ninth at the NCAA Southeast Region meet.
Seyoum concluded the season with a 58th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Johannigmeier feels that Seyoum is at the same point in his career as Seufer was at this point in his.
"Looking at the leap he made last year, going from a guy that wasn't all-region or All-ACC, at least in cross country, and had never ran in a national meet, going from that to All-ACC and all-region and honestly, his most impressive performance was finishing 58th at the NCAAs," Johannigmeier said. "I'd like to think that he's capable of making a similar jump this year, and if he does that, he's going to be an All-American."
Johannigmeier expects continued development from a quartet of redshirt juniors, including Bashir Mosavel-Lo, Will Griffen, Ben Fleming, and Osman Humeida, along with sophomore Antonio Lopez Segura and redshirt sophomore Ben Nibbelink. Lopez Segura just missed All-ACC honors last year as a freshman, coming in 30th, and Mosavel-Lo is an All-American in track and field. He appears ready to contribute more in cross country.
"I think we have some good pieces," Johannigmeier said. "I think it's just a matter of being consistent with the training and running well on the day. I think those guys are pretty motivated to do that."
On the women's side, things are a little more uncertain after the graduations of Sara Freix, Sarah Edwards, and Kyra Lopez, three all-region performers. Those three led the Hokies to a third-place finish at the regional meet – the program's best since 2006 – and a fourth-place performance at the ACC Championships.
Much of the hopes on the women's side this season hinge on the continued improvement of senior Ellie Brush and that of several underclassmen. Brush earned All-Southeast Region honors after coming in 22nd at the regional meet – one of the best performances of her career. She also had a top-50 finish at the ACC Championships.
"She really stepped up," Johannigmeier said. "The year before, she was 147th at the regional meet, and last year, she was 22nd. She's really made some big improvements in confidence and training, and certainly we're looking to continue to carry that over to this fall. I think she provides good inspiration to the other girls, too. It's like, 'If Ellie can make that jump in a year, then maybe I can, too.'"
Johannigmeier hopes that a group from this depth-shy squad emerges. He expressed high hopes for sophomores Grace Boone, Lindsey Butler and Hannah Ballowe – all of whom showed potential during the indoor track season.
"All three of them have had good summers and come back a lot fitter than they were a year ago at this point," Johannigmeier said. "I think those three are really, really motivated to be successful."
He also expressed high hopes for two graduate transfers – Ashley Smith from North Carolina and Reagan Bustamante from Vanderbilt. Both bring experience, trained well over the summer, and appear ready to enjoy solid falls on the cross country circuit.
The pandemic has wreaked havoc on this fall's cross country schedule, which consists of just three meets – Friday's Virginia Tech Invitational, the Panorama Farms Invitational in Charlottesville on Oct. 16, and the ACC Championships on Oct. 30 in Cary, North Carolina. The NCAA already has postponed the regional and national meet originally scheduled for late November.
The Hokies are ready to compete regardless. Both squads want to make a run at an ACC title – both literally and figuratively.