By Taylor Nigrelli
Assistant Sports Editor
In 2010, Bob Macfarlane took over as coach for the men’s and women’s cross country teams. Both teams finished last in nearly every large-field invitational they entered every year.
The men’s team finished last nearly every year at the Little Three Invitational and Atlantic 10 Championships while the women’s team never finished out of last at either in program history.
Junior Peter Eller and year captain Terence Petty are the only two runners remaining from the 2010 squad. According to Petty, Macfarlane changed the outlook of the team completely.
“The program has gone in a whole new direction,” Petty said. “He’s brought in some runners that are really motivated and are committed to the program. The kids just always want to improve on their times and place no matter how they’ve done and coach (Macfarlane) has a lot to do with that.”
Although combined they have no seniors and only four juniors (two of which missed the entire year with injury), these teams have already made their marks on St. Bonaventure cross country history. Freshman Kerry Caher owns the fastest 6k time in school history and the second fastest 5k time. Junior Kady Weisner, freshman Aubrie Russell and sophomores Hannah Robinson, Emily Steves and Elizabeth Dickinson have also cracked the top ten lists for fastest times.
Macfarlane said he has been impressed and surprised by his top four runners on the women’s team.
“Kerry (Caher) had a phenomenal year,” Macfarlane said. “She blossomed much quicker than we thought she would. Kady (Weisner) is a great runner, but she’s an even better teacher. She really helped the women’s team gel. Aubrie (Russell) also surprised us with her development this year and I can’t say enough about Hannah (Robinson). She was our captain and she bettered her times all year.”
The women’s team began the season with a second place finish at the Little Three Invitational and then a program best 14th–place finish in the field of 36 at the National Catholic Championships. However, Macfarlane said the Gettysburg Invitational was the turning point of the season.
“At the Gettysburg meet, things started to come together,” Macfarlane said. “Both teams discovered they could be really good.”
Macfarlane said he was also impressed with the men’s team’s season, especially after their injury troubles. They were without Petty and Eller the entire season, and last year’s top runner, Nick Masiello, suffered a leg injury late in the season.
“It just shows how resilient they are,” Macfarlane said. “I can’t say enough about them. Nearly everyone on the team had their best times ever this season, and they still want to improve. That says a lot about them.”
The men’s team made a little history of its own its this year as sophomore Harley Thompson recorded the fastest 10k time in school history. Thompson also joined sophomore Nick Masiello and freshman Joe Ferencik on the top-ten all-time list for 8k races. The team’s best placement of the season was a 10th –place finish of 41 teams at the Gettysburg Invitational. Although this year’s success is a far cry from two years ago, Petty said the biggest change has been the confidence going into races.
“Two years ago very few members of the team had confidence going in to meets,” Petty said. “We already knew we were going to lose. This year we had a lot of optimism heading into races. We knew we could do well.”
Eller said he believes this confidence boost is due to an all-around change in the program.
“We have a lot of new, talented runners,” Eller said. “The team has really been built-up in the past two years, there’s a lot more confidence in us. There’s a better coaching staff, better work outs, more depth and a lot more motivation to do well.”
After changing the attitude of the program so quickly, Macfarlane is looking to continue to improve in the future. To do this, he said the team needs better financial support.
“To continue to improve in the future we need to get more money for scholarships,” Macfarlane said. “We can get top runners here; we just need more financial aid to help these kids out. Then once they’re here, we can start developing them into pretty good runners.”
Both Petty and Eller believe the team will continue to improve the next few years.
“Realistically, within the next two or three years, I think we could be close to the middle of the A-10 pack,” Petty said. “We’ve already showed on the women’s side that we’re starting to move up.”
Eller said the Bonnies could be competitive even sooner.
“I think next year we’ll be out of the bottom,” Eller said. “We, for sure, will be three or four teams away from last place.”
According to Macfarlane, the only way the program can continue to improve and grow is with total cooperation from everyone.
“There has to be a common ground amongst everyone at the University,” Macfarlane said. “Everyone has to have the same goal and the same vision for us to get to the point where we want to get.”
