The cross country team will be starting its season with a home meet, the Bob Timmons Classic at Rim Rock Farm, on Saturday.

“It’s the first meet of the season to just get our feet back under us and to get in the mentality of racing again,” junior Nick Caprario said. “We’re trying to figure out where everyone is at on the team, what kind of shape people are in and what times are different.”

This meet will signal what the season could be like.

“There’s going to be some people who are really going to step up because it’s going to be a competition and not a workout,” Michael Whittlesey, assistant coach, said. “And I’m very excited to see who those athletes are, and it is really going to give us a good indication of where we need to work on with our team.”

The women’s team, however, will be starting without two of its top runners, senior Lauren Bonds and junior Amanda Miller. The absence of these two runners will give some of the other athletes the opportunity to try to gain more leadership on the team.

“Everyone should be a leader, and I think that this is a great time for people to become someone who can push the team,” sophomore Kara Windisch said. “The freshmen, sophomores and juniors need to start pushing a little to step up and show what they can do and keep the team going, because Bonds won’t be here next year and we are going to need someone to take her spot and move the team along.”

Sitting Bonds and Miller out during this first meet could strengthen the team for the rest of the season.

“Hopefully they gain a lot of experience and gain a lot of confidence to be able to handle that pressure, because how well we compete as a team later on in the year is dependent on the strength of our three through eight runners,” Whittlesey said.

The women are very confident in their training and their ability so far this season.

“We’ve done packing running, where we set a time that we need to hit and maintain, and that’s been seeming to work,” Windisch said. “I think that we are going to be ready for this race.”

The fact that it is a home meet also gives the Jayhawk runners a little more confidence.

“It’s always great to run at home; we only get one meet a year. It’s nice to have some people come out and support us,” Caprario said. “We’re going to have a little bit of an advantage.”

The runners hope to make the best of that advantage and start their season off right.

“I think the home meet — we have to live up to the expectations that this is our home meet,” Windisch said. “We’re going to go out there and show them that this is our turf and we are here to win on our Jayhawk course.”

— — Edited by Samantha Foster