UT Tyler Cross Country: Rolling With The Changes
August 26, 2009

Bob Dylan wrote that “The times they are a-changin’,” such is the case for The University of Texas at Tyler cross country teams. After four years of American Southwest Conference dominance, the men have graduated the five seniors that helped them collect four straight conference titles. For the women, after four years of watching the men take home the conference’s top prize, they look poised to finally bring home some hardware of their own.

Head Coach Bob Hepler knows that as he enters his sixth season at the helm of both teams, his runners will not have as much experience as they have had in year’s past. Of the 27 combined student-athletes on this year’s teams, only 10 are upperclassmen and of those 10 only three are seniors.

While he is not expecting big things out of the gate, he believes his teams will hit their stride towards the end of the season when it matters the most. “Both teams are very young, but they are also very talented,” said Hepler. “I think we will struggle a little in September as our younger runners get acclimated to the longer race distances, but on Oct. 10 at Mississippi College they will be racing one of the best courses in the country and I think they will have had time to get to the level of fitness they need to be at in order to be successful. That race will hopefully give us an opportunity to see where we are heading into the championship season.”

For the men it will be a year of new beginnings, as they look to replace five very big sets of shoes. However Hepler is not worried, in fact he says that this season is reminiscent of one of his first at UT Tyler.

“This year’s team reminds me of the team we won our first championship with; we had a lot of new runners and only a few returners that had experience.” Hepler continued, “This season, Philbert Mutuyimana, Ross Renfroe and Jeff Chandler will be coming back to help lead. All three were in or around our top five at the end of last season and all three have worked very hard this summer because they saw that this was their time to step up and shine.”

Despite his confidence in Mutuyimana, Renfroe and Chandler, he knows that the team will also need help from new runners as well. “Were expecting Philbert, Ross, and Jeff, to have solid years, but the key to this season will be having two other guys step up to help us down the stretch.”

For the women, a healthy Sarah Hankla, a Division I transfer and three key freshmen could provide just the right recipe for a breakout season. Hankla, who holds the 5K and 6K school records for the women, had knee surgery in June and has eased herself back to running strength all summer.

“We will have Sarah healthier this season than she has been since coming to UT Tyler,” said Hepler. “In addition, we have a transfer from Centenary (La.), who along with Sarah has already been providing great leadership to the younger members of the team.”

The addition of three freshmen will be the final piece of the puzzle that Hepler feels the women will need in order to compete for their first ASC title. “These three freshmen will be able to come in and contribute immediately, they are pure athletes. If we can keep everyone healthy this season, it could be a banner year for the women.”

Both teams will kick-off their season on Sept. 5 with their lone home meet of the season. One key component of this year’s schedule will be regular season races at Mississippi College on Oct. 10 and Guilford on Oct. 17, which are the sites of this year’s ASC Championships and NCAA Regionals, respectively.

Hepler says there are several advantages to this strategy. “With the Mississippi and Guilford meets, my goal is for the runners to view them as dress rehearsals. In addition to the physical rehearsals, I want them to use these meets as psychological rehearsals as well. That way, when the conference and regional meets come around they will be mentally prepared for the travel and they will be able to visualize the course in advance.”

The ASC Championships will be held on Oct. 31, followed by the NCAA South/Southeast Regional two weeks later on Nov. 14.

There are many question marks for both team heading in to this season, but the one thing that can be questioned is the runners’ love of and commitment to the sport. If those two things are present in any athlete, then success is usually not far behind.

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