Cross country team running toward its goals

By Jennifer Umaña
Daily Forty-Niner

For the Long Beach State Cross country team, this season will be more than just running.

"This is a new year for Long Beach State," said Assistant Coach Dana Colligan Gutierrez. "There are a lot of things that are elevated in the program."

Colligan Gutierrez said the Beach Pride Referendum, which was passed last semester and provides funding to the athletics department, has been helpful to the cross country team.

"We're getting to the next level," she said. "A new level of respect that we haven't been to before and a new level of funding."

In her first year of coaching at LBSU, Colligan Gutierrez said she has found the team to be a really positive group, making it fun to coach.

A nine-day training camp the team went to in the Trinity Alps helped its morale, she said.

"There were 30 people in one house with one bathroom," she said. "They had to learn to get together and get along."
 Colligan Gutierrez said the team has a lot of goals.

"The focus this year is on coming together as a team and being supportive."

She said the team has an interesting dynamic because it has several seniors and a lot of freshman.

"There are some good upcoming freshmen who are gaining experience," Colligan Gutierrez said.

She said she is excited about the season because the team has been training hard.

At their first meet, the Cal State Fullerton Jammin Cross Country Invitational in Brea on Sept. 2, the women's team placed fourth out of five teams, while the men's team placed fifth out of five.

"The first meet was kind of to see where they are," Colligan Gutierrez said.

This weekend's meet, at the Aztec Invitational in San Diego, should help determine how both teams match up, she said.

"It is a fairly competitive meet," she said, "I just see this meet as the team working on strategies to help each other." The team will aim for a smaller point and time spread, she said.

Captain Derek DeCicco is also looking forward to the meet on Saturday.

"We came out OK in the first meet," he said. "We should do well this weekend. It's a good test of where we stand."

DeCicco said that even though they lost their No. 1 runner from last year, Johann Appell, the freshmen make up for it.

"We're going to do better," he said. "This year will be a lot better than last year."