The Oswego State men’s and women’s cross country teams have hosted a meet at home for the first time since 2018. 

    At the meet, the Lakers finished in third place out of four participating teams. Oswego sophomores, Ellie Decker and Faith Coyle, both finished in the top three with Decker finishing in second with a 20:44 time and Coyle finishing in third with a 21:10 time.

    For the first time in their careers, Coyle and Decker were able to run at home instead of traveling. Decker mentioned how important it was to finally host a home meet, especially in front of Oswego cross country alumni.

     “It was very exciting for us, especially having all of the alumni there just because we didn’t have a course for so long,” Decker said. “COVID kind of took away the chance for a lot of runners to experience home meets. So to have them come back and for us to have our first ever home meet, it was really special.”

     Coyle was one of the Lakers stronger runners last season, and followed that up with a great performance in the first meet of the season at the Le Moyne Invitational on Sept. 3, where she finished in fifth place, running a 16:08 time, five seconds faster than Decker. 

The Lakers also brought in new head coach Juan Martinez. Joining as the interim coach last year, Coyle feels that he has done a great job acclimating to the team and bringing a new culture to Oswego cross country.

    “Coach has done a really great job adjusting [to the team] because he was thrown into a team that was abandoned and not well put together,” Coyle said. “He has put in a lot of work, and you can tell that he is just trying to bring us together as a team socially and athletically, making sure we have everything we need.”

    Both Decker and Coyle have been putting in the work to improve themselves for this season and it has paid off. Decker is pleased with how she has performed to start the season, especially after a slew of injuries that stifled her freshman season and summer training.

     “I personally have felt really good this season,” Decker said. “I have had a string of injuries over the past few years so this is the first season I have come in feeling uninjured and ready to race. It also feels good to have teammates out there training with me.”

     A runner for the men’s cross country team has also felt good to start the season. Andrew Deming came in 11th place in the Le Moyne Invitational, running a 21:50 time and 18th in the Oswego Invitational, running an 18:01 time, which were both tops for his team.

     “I was really nervous coming into this season,” Deming said. “I was very sick during summer training, but I ended up coming out and doing much better than I had expected.”

    Prior to this season, the cross country teams were a little short staffed when it came to runners. But this season, they were able to fill the roster and Deming thinks that this is going to be a big step for the team as a whole.

     “We didn’t have a lot of people on the team due to COVID and issues with previous coaches,” Deming said. “We are starting off this season with a lot of new people but we are very confident in them and their abilities.”

Deming, Coyle and Decker are all very confident in their teams abilities as a whole. They know that there will always be hurdles to overcome, but they feel that with a full team of runners, they can accomplish their goals more easily.

    “I think our team is doing pretty well so far this season,” Decker said. “We have dealt with injuries to start the season, but we do have more people coming in and trying out, so it’s nice to have a coach that will adjust the training in order to fit everyone’s physical needs.”

     The Lakers next meet will be the Yellow Jacket Invitational in Rochester on Sept. 17 as they look to continue their growth as a team.

Photo via Oswego Athletics Flickr