The Canisius College track program will begin its 2017 season Saturday when the team travels to the Rochester to take part in the Rochester Invitational beginning at 10:30 a.m.
The Griffs are coming off of a successful cross country campaign which saw sophomore Siobhan Quinn win the individual title at the 2016 MAAC Championship, while also breaking several school records.
Head coach Nate Huckle was named the 2016 MAAC Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year, as the men finished second at the 2016 MAAC Championship, the Golden Griffins’ fourth-straight top-five finish at the league’s championship event.
The Blue and Gold will look to continue the success from the fall, as they work their way back into shape for the new season.
“Its our first race of the year, so they haven’t raced since early November,” said Huckle. “This will be kid of a rust buster. Most of them are doing events that are shorter than what they’ll be focusing on for the MAAC Championships.
“We’re going to be working on speed this weekend. A lot of them will be running middle distance races and 4×4 relays to kind of shake out the cobwebs and get the legs turning over. When we go into the Cornell meet a week later they will be ready to start laying down some quick times and get seeds for the MAAC Championships.”
On the men’s side, the Griffs will feature a mix of veteran leadership and several young runners who will look to make an impact from day one.
“I think the men’s side will be interesting this year,” said Huckle. We’ve brought in a couple of freshman who will make some major contributions. Some guys that have more foot speed this year, like Marcus Brown, who is a 1:53 800 meter runner. He, combined with Donny Glavin, and bringing back Cooper Roach, Josh Sopchack and several others, should help us put together a real top-notch distance medley relay.
“Roach will do very well in the mile indoor, Sopchack will do well in the 1,000 meter and the mile indoor, and Jeff Antolos who is coming off of his redshirt from cross country is eager to get out and compete. We have a couple of other seniors looking to go out on a high note in Xavier Sauvagaeu and Brennan Root, who are coming off of strong cross country seasons and looking to do something special in this indoor season as well.“
Huckle also has high hopes for his women’s side, who he has seen grow over the course of the past few years.
“In cross country they began to see that they can compete at the MAAC level, and see themselves as more well rounded division I runners,” Huckle noted. “They’ve had the fitness and the talent level for a couple of years now, but the confidence was lagging a little bit. This year they’ve really started to get their confidence, and that will carry over into the indoor and outdoor season.
“We have some seniors that should have a big impact this season. We will try to set some school records in some relays. Macey Walker, Haley Keene, and Anna Phillips will make major contributions on the distance side. Quinn is looking really good right now and will continue to rewrite our record books at Canisius. She and Carlin Sullivan will push each other and start to drop some of our school records this indoor season.”
After this weekends invite, the Golden Griffins will continue to ramp up their training with three races before the MAAC Indoor Track & Field Championships held on Feb. 18 from New York.
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