Women’s cross country team eager to get season underway


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After a long summer of training, the USC women’s cross country team will face its first test of the season when the squad travels south to the University of California at Irvine Invitational on Saturday.

2010 represents what should be an exciting year for the Women of Troy, and Coach Tom Walsh is eager to see what the team has to offer.

“You can’t tell where everyone’s at until we get on the field and compete,” Walsh said. “This will be a good indication of what we need to do going forward.”

After a 2009 season when the team constantly felt the burden of injuries and illness, Walsh is being understandably cautious in the early going in 2010. Some of USC’s top runners won’t compete this weekend, including senior standout Szofia Erdelyi, redshirt sophomore and UCLA transfer Shelby Buckley, and sophomore Kathleen Moloney. Buckley and Moloney are recovering from minor injuries, and Erdelyi, consistently the team’s strongest runner, is getting a rest due to an extended spring track and field season.

“We’re just getting Szofia ready for the Stanford meet in a couple weeks,” Walsh said. “She’s not sick or injured. We’re expecting big things from her as a senior.”

Instead, USC will send a talented mixture of youth and experience to UC Irvine and try to gauge what kind of impact the rest of the runners will have this year.

“It’ll be a good test for the others to step up and see if they can contribute as our number one, two or three runners,” Walsh said. “Especially since they’re not used to it.”

Seniors Christine Cortez, Dina Kitayama and Zara Lukens will lead Saturday’s team, along with juniors Leah Gaeta and Jessica Lundin. Rounding out the squad are sophomore Kelly Owen and freshman Jaclyn Wallace, who was the all-city runner up in cross country out of Venice High School.

“We’re going to ask the juniors to step up and be leaders on this team, as well as the seniors,” Walsh said. “This is the girls’ first chance to prove that they can do that.”

They’ll face some stiff competition from all over the state. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Northridge, Pepperdine, and host UC Irvine all annually field strong teams.

“It’ll be good competition for the first meet of the year,” Walsh said. “In the end, I’m not as interested in a team place as I am to see how the runners respond and how they look after a whole summer of training. I’m looking for improvement level.”

Walsh also admitted he’s hoping for a bit of the unexpected, in a good way of course.

“I’d love some positive surprises,” he said. “We’ve had two weeks to practice, so I’m excited to see what we can do come race time.”