Coach Peterson's Quotes Following The Sundodger Invitational
Sep 19, 2015 | Cross Country
On the performance of the men's team
"Overall, I'm pleased with the way the men's team competed today. Every one of them ran very aggressively and put themselves into a position through about six kilometers where it looked as if we were going to have as good of a team performance as we've had in years. Both Moses [Aloiloi] and Emmanuel [Rotich], along with Chris Lowery, were in the lead pack at that time. Nich [Meloro] and Jack [White] were also in very strong, competitive positons, but we just weren't able to hang on to it. A couple of the guys came out too fast and then paid for it. When that happens, it softens up our team performance which is unfortunate because we really did have a lot of very strong individual performances."
On what the men's team has to do to improve
"We're going to work had at getting stronger at the five, six and seven positions. Everyone, with more experience and more training, will improve. We're not far away from becoming a very good and competitive team. We've got good pieces right now at the front. Now we've got to develop more depth and have the guys perform well as we move through our schedule."
On the performance of the women's team
"I've got mixed emotions about the results. Obviously, I'm very pleased with the individual results from Emma Newton, Lauren Bartels and Mikayla Sonneborn. I remain concerned about the challenge and the struggle that we're having trying to shore up the back end of our team and have stronger performances in our final two scoring spots. I know that the team is very young and inexperienced, but we need to find an answer and some solutions. We're going to work hard moving forward at getting that done.
On what the Green Wave women can take away from this meet
"The leadership of Emma Newton and Mikayla Sonneborn is becoming something that we're able to rely on – not only in races but on a daily basis in practice. Getting Lauren Bartels back and having her run the way that she did today is just a wonderful thing for our team. All three of them ran life-time bests, and for Mikayla, it was a significant life-time best. For Emma and Lauren to ran the way that they did coming off of injuries they suffered last year is really remarkable, and it's a great sign for the future success of our team."
Players Mentioned
