Men hoping to build on 2016 success

By Brodee Gillam

Sports Editor

Dynasties are uncommon on any level of any sport. This reign for the LCC women's cross country team is nearing dynasty-levels of success.

Before finishing as back-to-back NJCAA National Champions last year, the Stars had placed at least in the top 10 of the NJCAA National Tournament every year since 2005.

As good as the LCC women are, the men are not far behind.

With a national championship in 2007 to go along with nine other top-10 tournament finishes since 2005, the LCC men have also been consistent contenders every season.

Culture and tradition play a huge part in any sports organization's extended success. This is also the case for the Stars, according to Head Coach Jim Robinson.

Robinson said one of the crucial things to the culture is runners who have passion for cross country.

"We all really love running. When I talk to recruits I ask them, 'Do you love running?' because we run a lot," Robinson said.  "At the end of the day you have to be passionate about the sport, you really have to love the sport itself, so hopefully that's something that rubs off on the kids."

Robinson said freshmen women Kirsten McGahan, Emma Distelrath, Tori Moffitt and Autumn Tuck all have strong potential in their first season at LCC.

On the men's side, Robinson said he is extremely impressed by the whole freshmen class. A few names Robinson mentioned are freshmen Jacob Ferguson, Alex McCormick, Alan Baird and Jack Youngblood.

Sophomore Ashley Lindeman said the two teams being around each other often builds team morale.

"Our team is very close," Lindeman said. "We're together, literally, every day anyways. The sport that we (do) it's so tough, it's so easy to just give up and slow down or walk.

"We're so together, and just working together and building each other up really brings us close together."

The first meet for both the men and women is the Olivet College Invitational at Olivet College on Friday, Sept. 1 at 6 p.m.