Capron Excited About Opening Cross Country Season

Capron Excited About Opening Cross Country Season

8/31/2018 1:58:00 PM | Cross Country

New-Look Baylor Team Hosting Annual Bear Twilight Invitational

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

As freshmen, Celia Holmes and Cal Johnston are not surprisingly nervous about their first collegiate cross country meet when Baylor hosts the annual Bear Twilight Invitational at the Heart O' Texas Soccer Complex Friday night in Waco.

"I'm nervous, but I'm mostly excited to be running with the team," said Holmes, who won three TAPPS state cross country championships and a total of 12 on the track. "It's going to be such a cool atmosphere, and I'm really excited to be joining in."

It's also the first meet for Jon Capron as associate head coach after serving as Todd Harbour's assistant for the last 15 years.

"I couldn't be more excited," said Capron, who led the men's team only prior to this season. "It definitely spreads out the people I'm worried about. I had about 15 to worry about, and now I've got 35, and 20 o0f them being ladies, which changes the dynamic considerably. I haven't changed much, which was kind of the goal. We've been doing very well on the ladies' side for years, so to flip the script would be a little bit nutty."

Capron's goal is to eventually bring the men's team up to the level of the women, who have made 16 NCAA Championship appearances overall and nine in the last 18 years under coach Todd Harbour.

For Friday's 7 p.m. meet at the HOT complex, his goal is just to "let them go." The women will run a 4K race, followed by a men's 6K over the flat course that weaves through the soccer fields and back through the trees on the eastern edge of the complex.

"We've been kind of holding the reins on them a lot these first couple of weeks, because it's so easy to pull a little too hard," he said. "I'm excited to see what they can do when they're full-tilt."

Sophomore Brooke Gilmore, a scoring runner in each of her six meets last year, heads a women's team that includes senior Megan Rule, juniors Alison Andrews-Paul, Emily Curran, Haley Everroad, Sydney Gandy, Isabela Lackner, Hana Marsheck, Katy Parsons and Lindsay Walton and sophomore Sarah Antrich. Holmes and fellow freshmen Jamie Holodak and Mazie Larsen will run attached.

"Brooke's been really impressive, but she showed us that all last year," Capron said. "She's kind of just right back where she started. And then Alison Andrews-Paul came back from summer in really good shape and is in really good cross-country form. She's been in great track shape before, but the cross shape has been a little more elusive for her. So, I'm really excited to see what she can do on the grass this year."

The men's team lost its top five from last season, but returns sophomores Jeremy Meadows and T.J. Sugg that ran at last year's NCAA Regional. Also back are seniors Henry Huff, Jeff Kirwin and Sean McCullough, junior Matt Henderson and sophomore Connor Laktasic, with Johnston and fellow freshman J.B. Sandlund competing this week and Alec Atteberry and Jake Merrell running unattached.

Capron said Meadows and Kaktasic have been impressive in training runs, "and it's up to some of those upperclass giuys to kind of tell them to wait in line."

"Matt Henderson has looked good in workouts and Henry Huff had a good summer, so I'm looking for those guys to kind of establish their seniority, if you will. But, Connor and Jeremy are kind of the ones to beat right now on the guys' side."

Although Holmes is running unattached for this meet, Capron said he hopes the Waco freshman from Live Oak Classical School will be "scaring that top-seven, top-five slot."

"As a cross-country coach, you need bodies in that 5 slot, or close to it," Capron said. "She may not be in the top five, but she's going to keep them honest, for sure. And that's exactly where I need her right now. She will grow into someone that I think I can count on year-in and year-out."

A six-time district champion in cross country and track and state qualifier last year in cross country, Johnston is "almost the same story" as Holmes.

"I would expect him to be in the hunt. He's been right there," Capron said. "For him to be right there and a potential top five for us is amazing and a credit to the work he did this summer."

Baylor will get in two meets in the first eight days of the season, running at next Friday's Gerald Richey UTA Invitational at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie.