Running team starting fresh
Sept. 18, 2009 - Regina Leader-Post
By Tim Switzer
The last time the University of Regina Cougars men's cross-country team competed for real, it was a bitter disappointment.
Heading into the CIS championships last November in Quebec City, the Cougars were one of the top-ranked teams in the country and were poised to prove that ranking was legit in competition against the rest of the nation.
But then, just days before the race, the team's top runner, Kelly Wiebe, suffered a knee injury that prevented him from running at the meet and made it impossible for the Cougars to field a full five-man team, eliminating any chance for team success.
"That affected the morale of the whole team," said fourth-year runner Dale Wig.
But as they embark on a new season, the Cougars have vowed to leave that memory behind as they chase the team's best-ever finish during a CIS season. While the national meet is still two months away, the Cougars will get started down that road Saturday during the annual Cougar Trot behind the Saskatchewan Science Centre in Wascana Park.
The women's five-kilometre race begins at 12:15 p.m. and the men's eight-kilometre run begins at 12:35 p.m. Runners from any age class can register for the race between 10 and 11:15 a.m. Saturday.
"It's not a super-serious meet and you don't want too much pressure on you right away," said Wig, a Canada West second-team all-star in 2008. "Plus it's a course we run on almost every day so it's familiar. Even though there's only 30 people in the race (including the Cougars, Saskatchewan Huskies and alumni runners from the U of R and NCAA programs), it's still pretty competitive. There's not a ton of people, but those who are are actually pretty fast."
With Scott Mitchell having used his final year of eligibility in 2008, the remaining members of the Cougars' top five -- Wig, Wiebe, Iain Fyfe and Eric Benjamin -- have welcomed rookie Wyatt Baiton into the A group. Wiebe is still coming off the injury and will not compete this weekend.
While the first rankings from the CIS are not out yet, a few unofficial rankings have been posted on running websites with the Cougars showing up sixth on one list.
For Wig, though, a ranking of sixth place is not good enough this season. He wants to finish in the top five in the country.
"To me, it's pretty simple: We just have to stay healthy," said Wig. "We have a really good top five. After that, the depth drops off. We have to have those top five healthy at CIs and then we'll meet our goals."