The William and Mary men's cross country team ended 2013 on a strong note, upsetting three higher-ranked teams at the Southeast Regional and winning its 14th-straight Colonial Athletic Association title.  Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Stephen Walsh returns five of his top seven from the championship squad, and will have an intriguing blend of experience and youth to work with over the next two years as the Tribe aims for a return to the NCAA Championships.  Every athlete on the W&M roster this fall has at least two years of eligibility left, an almost-unheard of luxury in Division I in the circles the Tribe is used to running in.

Top Five
Looking to lead the way once again for the Tribe are the last two CAA Rookies of the Year in junior Ryan Gousse and freshman Trevor Sleight.  Gousse was the Tribe's second runner at the Southeast Regional, and finished fifth overall at the CAA Championships.  He had a breakout spring campaign, winning the 3,000m steeplechase at the CAA Championships, and was an IC4A qualifier at 5,000m in the winter.  He just missed out on an NCAA bid in May, but that may prove to be a blessing in disguise with an additional month's worth of summer training in preparation for this fall.

Sleight was the Rookie of the Year in 2013, after earning a bronze medal at the CAA Championships as the Tribe's no.-2 runner.  He was third for the team at the region meet, and then continued a steady string of impressive performances on the track.  Indoors, Sleight was eighth at the IC4A 5,000m in 14:22, the second-fastest time ever by a Tribe rookie, and outdoors, moved up to 10,000m where he added another All-East honor with a seventh-place at the IC4A outdoor meet.  He was third in the 10,000m at the conference meet, and ran 30:40 in his debut at Mt. SAC, fifth-best ever for a freshman.

Also returning for the Tribe with championship experience is junior David Barney.  He finished right behind Gousse in sixth at the CAA Championships last fall, and was the team's fifth scorer at the Southeast Regional two weeks later.  His strong performance over the 10K course was made all the more impressive six months later, when Barney took second at the CAA Championships and seventh at IC4As in the 1,500m.  Over the course of three weeks, Barney lowered his lifetime-best in the event by more than 10 seconds, to 3:48.  Indoors, he was also an IC4A qualifier at 5,000m.

Returnee No. 4 is sophomore Faris Sakallah, who was 11th at the CAA Championships to earn all-conference mention.  The seventh man for W&M that day, he stepped up his game at the region meet to finish sixth for the team, and carried that improvement through the two track seasons.  He qualified for the U.S. Junior Championships at 3,000m and 5,000m, and in fact is eligible for junior competition again this year.  At the CAA Championships, Sakallah doubled-up in the 5,000m and the steeplechase, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively.

Rounding out the returning top five from last fall is redshirt-junior Nathaniel Hermsmeier.  Hermsmeier finished 10th at the CAA Championships and pushed through injury to take seventh for W&M at the regional, but would have to deal with the after-effects for the rest of the winter.  He helped the Tribe's DMR advance to the finals of the IC4A Championships indoors, and broke through late in the spring with a pair of top-four finishes at the CAA Championships.  On the first night, Hermsmeier took third in the 5,000m, and came back the next day to finish fourth in the 1,500m.

Juniors
Past the top five, W&M has a number of young runners ready to claim the final varsity spots, and even push for more spots as the year reaches the championship phase.  Juniors Nathan Thomas and Jacob Sears are poised for big years on the trails, each having taken their own path to reach this point.  Thomas was one of the team's best freshmen along with Gousse two years ago, but battled the injury bug for most of last year before finally being able to focus on training this summer.  He was able to score for W&M at the conference meet outdoors, taking fifth in his debut at 10,000m.  Sears ran a respectable 8:33 for 3,000m indoors and 14:36 for 5,000m at Princeton in mid-May, but found his event at the CAA Championships.  He took second in the steeplechase to Gousse, and over the next two weeks improved his lifetime-best by 15 seconds down to 9:08.  That burst of success propelled Sears into the off-season with purpose, and the team is excited to see the result of that hard work come through this fall.

Also looking for breakthroughs are two more juniors.  Ricky Cappetta is a more middle-distance focused runner, but could ride that speed this year onto the CAA squad.  Paul Gates ran well early in the season last fall, finishing second for W&M at its own invitational and eighth on the team at UVA, but had his promising season and the entire track seasons wiped out due to injury.

Sophomores
The sophomore class includes two men who made the CAA squad in cross country in Nick Tyrey and Tom Feeney.  Tyrey finished 15th in the league meet, and was also part of the winning teams at the W&M Invitational and the CNU Invitational.  He ran twice indoors before sitting out the spring.  Feeney took 24th in cross country, and also ran at the W&M and CNU Invites.  His track campaign was highlighted by a seventh-place finish in the CAA 10,000m.

Cavender Salvadori had perhaps the most impressive track season of this group, finishing fourth in the steeplechase at the CAA Championships.  Middle-distance specialist Kurtis Steck was seventh in the 1,500m, and A.J. Tucker added another seventh-place finish at 5,000m.  Rounding out the class is Reider Strehler, who won the 3,000m at CNU in April and competed in both the 5,000m and the steeplechase at the CAA Championships.

Freshmen
W&M welcomes in seven freshmen this year, making up one of the deepest classes in recent years.  Mac Haight was a Footlocker XC finalist last fall, and followed up by winning the Virginia state championships at 3,200m indoors.  Asher Smith-Rose led Broughton HS in North Carolina to three-straight state championships in cross country, and has run 9:14 for 3,200m.  Dawson Connell may not have the same raw speed as others in the class, but he is a tough and gritty runner who was the Virginia state silver-medalist in cross country last fall for York HS.  He was named the Boys Runner of the Year by both the Daily Press and the Peninsula Sports Club after that feat, and went on to place top-six in both the 800m and 1,600m indoors a few months later.

The class also includes Thomas Vinci of New Jersey, who led West Windsor-Plainsboro South HS to the no.-1 ranking among New Jersey public schools in 2013.  He took fourth at his division's state championship, and 14th at the all-divisions Meet of Champions.  Ryan Thompson ran for Osbourn Park HS in Virginia, ranking eighth in the state at 3,200m in 2014 with his personal-best of 9:23.  Chris Hoyle was right behind him with a 9:23 showing of his own, and earned second-team All-Met honors from the Washington Post his junior year at Gonzaga College HS.  The final member of the class is Matt Celsa, an all-state honoree in cross country for Potomac Falls HS this past year.