PREVIEW: Expectations High for Experienced Women's Cross Country

Regis Athletics Fall Previews

Men's Cross Country: Pride Looks To Youth Movement For Success in 2017
Women's Cross Country: Expectations High for Experienced Women's Cross Country

WESTON, Mass. - When the Regis (Mass.) women’s cross country team will open its 2017 season on Friday, Sept. 1, no one will have a case of first collegiate race jitters.

The 2016 New England Collegiate Conference champion Pride graduated just two runners in the spring, and the only new face on the squad is transfer student Maggie Mann (Buzzards Bay, Mass.), who comes to Regis after one season running for Bridgewater College in Virginia.

“(Mann) is coming off of an injury but her training has been going really well,” said second year head coach Kourtney Bonsey. “She could be a really top contender and I’m excited to add her to the top training group.”

Returning to the Pride in 2017 are senior Molly Curtin (Brockton, Mass.) and sophomore Maddie Boucias (Buckland, Mass.). Curtin was the 2016 Runner of the Year in the NECC, while Boucias was the NECC Rookie of the Year. Bonsey looks for the duo to continue its success this season as they face tougher competition in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.  “Curtin can place really high up in the GNAC,” she said. “Just looking over results from last year, she can definitely be a top contender this year.”

But just because she sees Curtin as a top contender, Bonsey knows that it will not come easily in the team’s first season in the new conference. “The GNAC for cross country is pretty stacked. (We’ll have to) explain to the women - and the men - we did really well last season, but it is going to take a lot more this season. I’m going to expect a lot out of our runners and I have really high expectations for us in the GNAC.” Norwich University, the reigning GNAC champions from a year ago, returns three of its four All-Conference runners this fall.

For the fourth consecutive year, both the men’s and women’s cross country teams will head to Stowe, Vt. for a preseason training trip prior to its season opener. The team will stay at the Round Hearth at Stowe, a ski lodge and running camp complete with bunk beds for three nights, where the team will train twice a day. “It’s huge for team bonding and team cohesion,” Bonsey said. “We really set the tone for the season, start setting our goals and working as a team while we’re up there.”

The Pride’s 2017 schedule features seven meets in the fall, culminating with the GNAC Championship in Bristol, R.I. on October 28 and the NCAA Regionals in Portland, Maine on November 11. The team will open its season with a tri-meet against Brandeis University and Wellesley College in Wellesley on Friday, September 1.