With track season coming to a close this weekend, cross country is becoming the focus again.

This past cross country season was a relatively successful one. Team members Matt Cagigal, finance senior, and Richard Bouckaert, history senior, finished first and second in the Gulf Coast Atlantic Conference Championships, and Mary Erin Imwalle, mass communication junior, finished first for the women.

Both Cagigal and Bouckaert are graduating this year and will need replacements for next season. This creates a problem in off-season planning for coach Al Seither, who hopes he may find some incoming freshman to fill in the void.

“I am recruiting two local kids, but it seems as though they are going to wait until the last day to make their decision. It is getting to the point that I just want to tell them to make up their minds,” Seither said.

Along with putting up with the frustrations of the recruiting process, Seither also has to make sure the team stays in shape. Part of the purpose of the track season is to do just that.

“We have not had a big track team at Loyola for a few years. We use track kind of like an off-season training program to stay in shape for cross country, our big sport,” Seither said.

Part of the reason the track team takes this approach is because of the competition they face. “In our last meet Matt (Cagigal) had to run against a guy that ran a four-minute mile. We just cannot compete with that,” Seither said.

Despite the stiff competition, the team stays motivated. “We do run against some fast kids, but track is my passion and running is what keeps me motivated,” said runner Tyler Kaufman, marketing freshmanThe track season ends at the Alumni Gold Track meet in Baton Rouge on Saturday and Kaufman, along with the rest of the team, agree they are excited. “Saturday should be very cool. We get to run with some really fast people, and it will be fun to participate,” Kaufman said.

The team will run against some of the best in the nation. Running against such tough competition should pay off next fall for the upcoming cross country season, the team hopes. Should everything fall into place, the team is in position to improve even more next fall, the squad says.

Jonathan Timberlake can be reached at [email protected].