The West Prairie/Southeastern cross country program begins its second season (it’s first as a coop) with its second head coach, but the interest continues to build as Logan Lommel welcomes 12 student-athletes to the squad including two also playing football this fall.
Lommel is a native of Minnesota who attended Western Illinois University and participated in soccer, track and field, and cross country.
Before he graduated, Lommel was a multiple record holder in track and cross country for the Leathernecks before volunteering as an assistant coach for both. Last spring, Lommel assisted with the West Prairie Junior High running programs.
Last fall, numbers were hard to come by in terms of qualifying for team events since five runners are needed. This year, Lommel is more optimistic.
“Last year, there was only one girl and six boys, I believe,” said Lommel. “When they got to the end of the season, there was only four (boys) running, so they didn’t have enough to qualify. (Currently), we have four girls and I’m really trying to see if we can get a couple of more, so then we can have a team.”
This year’s team consists of only a couple of upperclassmen with the rest comprised of freshmen and sophomores.
One of those sophomores is Brynlee Finch, the lone returning girl from last season. As for the freshmen, it’s an adjustment from junior high cross country which is run on a two-mile course but increases to three miles in high school.
“We have a pretty young team,” said Lommel. “There is an adjustment there for high school. They’re going to have to do a little more training, maybe even run on their own if they really want to excel. The big motivation for me is instilling that motivation in them and making practice as fun as possible.”
“We always try to start practice and end practice with something together,” Lommel continued. “At the end of the day in cross country, the top five athletes score, so it is more of a team sport than track in that sense.”
Lommel is excited about the prospects of several individuals including sophomore Ayden Lacey who was the Prairieland Conference 1600-meter champion last spring as a freshman.
“He decided this summer that he wants to take cross country seriously,” said Lommel. “I think he could run under, potentially, 16 minutes. Ezra Bithos had a really strong season in cross country and track last year and Milo Rodeffer, who came along at the end of track last year, has ran a whole summer and I expect some of these boys will PR (personal record) in the first couple of meets.”
As for team expectations this fall, Lommel is keeping it simple on a personal level.
“For all of them, no matter where they’re at, I place a big emphasis on just growth,” said Lommel. “Most of them won’t run in college, maybe some won’t run again, so like what did you learn as a person. I gave them their goal sheets so they’re setting a goal as people and then as runners for the season. I like separating those two things. They’re just ready to learn and they like to have fun.”
The Cyclones will open up the fall schedule on Aug. 26, when they will participate at the Macomb Early Bird meet at Spring Lake Park.
