With just seven athletes, the men’s cross country team is a close-knit unit. Led strongly in spirit by sophomore runners Jeremy Porter and Cody Drisko, the team is training hard to meet the demands of Division II competition.
“They set an example with the way they work,” Head Coach Preston Grey said. “The other guys know [those two are] practically running 80 miles a week, and it’s hard for [them] to complain when they know that.”
“Since we have such a small team, there’s really no room for error,” Drisko said. “There’s pressure, but you want to perform for your teammates, and you want to do the best that you can.”
Drisko has been running in cross country for nine years. “I started running competitively in sixth grade and haven’t stopped since,” he said.
This season is Porter’s fourth year running cross country. Porter explained his journey to becoming a competitive runner.
“I got cut from the basketball team; I wanted to play but I wasn’t very tall,” he said. “The cross country team wanted me, and I ended up loving it. I decided I wanted to be an athlete in the NCAA.”
The season has not been without its challenges. The Stanford Invitational was a rough meet for the Cougars. With 30 teams competing at once, beginning the race on a small stretch of land resulted in “a 10-person pile up, with five people from our team,” Porter said, “They had to play catch-up the whole race.”
“It was rough. We learned a lot, which is good,” Drisko said. “We all came out of that not happy [with the race], but it definitely strengthened us.”
The Cougars’ season has just one more meet until the PacWest championship meet, and from there, the athletes will hopefully qualify for the NCAA West Regional meet.
“There’re not a lot of meets in cross country,” Grey said. “So you’ve got to learn and grow from every single one.”
The Cougars finished 16th of 30 teams at the Stanford invitational.
“Those big races will expose any flaws you have and really show where you’re at as a team,” Grey said. “[Those events] are always a good benchmark and show us what we need to continue to improve on.”
Having competed in the U.S. Junior Nationals race at the University of Oregon, Drisko began the cross country season over a month behind the rest of the team in training.
“I had to build up fairly quickly and stay at a good weekly mileage so that I could [establish] that base I missed,” he said. “That’s probably the main challenge I face for the season.”
But after the first meet at the Lancer Invitational, Drisko has consistently completed second on the team, trailing closely behind Porter.
“[Porter] and I are two of the stronger [runners] in the long distances, so we push each other to do the best we can,” Drisko said. “We’re also roommates, so we push each other off the track, too.”
Porter said conversations with his teammates keep him going when the miles seem long and tedious.
“It makes it easier because you could be on mile four when all of a sudden you’ll be on mile 10 after a long discussion,” Porter said. “You get to know your teammates really well [when] you talk to them and experience what they’re experiencing.”
Both Cougars also compete in distance events for the Track and Field team in the spring.
“I hope they continue to grow. Just staying on the path they’re on, getting better at training, getting better mileage,” Grey said. “I think they have the opportunity to be All-Americans in Division II.”