The 2016 Oswego State men’s cross country season is winding down, but the team is focused on preparing and doing well in the SUNYAC Championships this upcoming weekend.

The Lakers have had a successful season thus far and have finished in the top three in four of their five meets, including a first place finish at the Roberts Weslyan Invitational that took place in Rochester, New York.

A big reason the Lakers have drastically improved this year is because of juniors Kyle Pollicove and Colin Greenseich. A change in the off season routine by head coach Sarah Ritchie has helped both players get in better shape for the upcoming season.

“This summer we did a lot of mileage which is more important when it comes to cross country,” Greenseich said. “We didn’t focus on workouts until two weeks before the start of the season so I think it was really helpful to change up the summer routine.”

Greenseich is very excited for the SUNYAC Championships this weekend and hopes that the team can finish better than they did last year when they placed sixth in last season’s postseason meet.

“We’re really shooting for third place this weekend behind SUNY Geneseo and SUNY Oneonta,” Greenseich said. “The runners on the other teams are just points away so everyone has to show up and have their best race this weekend.”

Junior Kyle Pollicove also pointed to the difference in the offseason training program and how it has allowed the team to be more successful this season.

“There’s definitely more of a focus on building our base mileage before we really start digging into workouts,” Pollicove said. “Its significantly better then jumping right into workouts that we aren’t prepared for which can lead to injuries in the early part of the season.”

The weather outside is starting to get colder and for unexperienced runners, running in the cold can be much harder than running in the middle of the summer, but according to Pollicove it does not have that effect on him.

“If you go into the race with the right mentality the cold shouldn’t bother you at all,” Pollicove said. “You just have to focus on the task at hand and get through it.”

Although Oswego State has had a couple top three finishes, it was not a main goal of the team when the season started back in early September.

“Honestly, it was kind of a surprise every time we did well,” Richie said. “We haven’t been focusing on that because throughout the early season meets it’s more about how you do individual in preparation towards the season.”

The Lakers are in competition this week with two other teams for spots three to five on the line. SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Fredonia are the two teams Oswego State will be in close competition with.

“The three through five gap is within five points of each other and the difference could be one person not eating their breakfast,” Richie said. “Its just going to be such a close race.”

The SUNYAC Championships will take place Saturday at 11 a.m in Geneseo, New York.