Going into his 11th season as head coach of the Waynesburg University cross country team, Blair Zimmerman faces a first for his coaching career. This year, the Yellow Jacket men’s runners actually out-number the women.
The Jacket men, who are coming off of a sixth-place finish at last fall’s PAC championship meet, are led by juniors Bill Moder and Adam Swingle, who anchored the team last year and are coming off of solid track and field seasons this past spring. Moder was also named a PAC Cross Country Runner of the Week in 2008. Zimmerman was also impressed with Moder’s offseason work this summer.
Seniors Mike Harwick and Shea Gottschalk complete a solid core of returners that Zimmerman believes will be helped out by a very talented group of freshmen that he feels will contribute from day one.
Matt Crawford, Kyle Edwards, Christopher Mullins and Shea Gottschalk’s younger brother Shalan Gottschalk, all bring solid high school resumes with them to Waynesburg, including Edwards, who qualified for states as a senior at Saegertown High School.
Between the improvement of the returners and the infusion of new talent from the freshmen, Zimmerman feels that this is the year that the Jacket men begin to close the gap between themselves and their female counterparts.
The Jacket men open their season on Sept. 5, when they travel to Maryland to take part in the Sea Gull Opener, which will be hosted by Salisbury University. The following week, they’ll join the Waynesburg women in hosting the annual Waynesburg invitational.