After a very successful season last year, Queen’s Cross Country Head Coach Mark Bomba feels optimistic about what this fall holds for the Men's and Women's Varsity Cross Country teams.

Coming up this weekend, the team kicks off their season in London, Ont. at the Bob Vigars Western Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 23. While half the roster heads to Western University, the other half of the team will compete locally on Sept. 23, participating in the KRRA Fort Henry 5K in Kingston Ont.

Bomba is viewing these first two races as an opportunity to shake off the rust and warm up for the big events coming up in October and November.

"It'll be interesting to see how both groups end up running this weekend. We're not putting any sort of huge pressure on it, but there will be good competition," said Bomba.

Last year marked a historic milestone for the Men's team. At the U SPORTS Cross Country Championships, the men's team finished with a bronze medal, earning their first national championship podium in over twenty years. For the Women's team, Elizabeth Vroom (Ottawa, Ont.) won the U SPORTS Rookie of the Year and helped the Gaels finish 10th overall in the championship race.

The Women's team has a promising season ahead, as several key runners will be returning to the roster. Last year, the team won the Women's Capital XC Challenge in Ottawa and finished just off the podium at the OUA Championship in fourth place with seasoned veteran Emma Graham (Toronto, Ont.) placing 15th. Gillian Porter (Ottawa, Ont.) and Vroom are returning to the team fired up after a big win in their relay event at the U SPORTS Track & Field Championships this past winter.

"Most of our top women are back. There's about six or seven of them that are a nice big pack just running around and feeding off of each other," said Bomba.

On the Men's side, Roman Mironov (Toronto, Ont.) and Jude Wheeler-Dee (Kingston, Ont.) are two key athletes returning as upperclassmen this year. The two are known for their side-by-side finish line crossing last year at the Canadian National Cross Country Championships in November, making history and sharing the national title.

"From a media perspective and for our reputation in the Canadian running community, that was massive for our team last year," commented Bomba on Mironov and Wheeler-Dee's tied first-place finish.

"I think it was one of the reasonswhy we have such a good recruiting class… it got a lot of notoriety and was great for the program."

Wheeler-Dee has been a consistent force on the Men's team for two seasons now. He's also a standout athlete on the Distance Track team; this past January, he broke a 35-year-old Queen's record for the 1,000-meter dash.

Miles Brackenbury is another key returnee on the Men’s side. Brackenbury finished 10th at OUA and 33rd at U SPORTS.

A number of local recruits from Kingston will join the Men's roster this year.

“Our Men’s team is a young team, and honestly we don't really even lose anybody for next year's group as well. So our Men’s team is set for the next handful of years to be players at the national level,” said Bomba.

I’m looking forward to the cross country season this year. The team has been looking good in training, we have a great group and are able to work well with each other to push everyone forward. Hopefully, we can keep the momentum from last year going into these early races and continue to improve throughout the season. - Elizabeth Vroom

“I’m super excited for the upcoming season and to see what our team can accomplish! Our team has been looking really strong and we have some big goals heading into the USports season where we hope to improve on last year's results!” – Madelyn Bullock

"I’m excited for the opportunity to race again and showcase all the effort I’ve put in for this season. The Women's team is coming together as a whole and shaping up to have some amazing performances.” - Gillian Porter

“We’re amped to get the season rolling. Our core group has another year of experience under our feet, and we’ve added some of the best recruits in the nation alongside a veteran grad transfer to our lineup. People are taking notice of what we’ve been building, yet internally we feel like we’re only just starting to scratch the surface of what we’re capable of.” – Roman Mironov

“This team has some pretty big goals for the season and it’s really amazing to be a part of a program which recognizes this and is putting in the work day in and day out.” – Jude Wheeler-Dee

Bomba feels that this fall, both the Men’s and Women’s teams will be successful, building upon last year’s achievements and aiming for even greater success in the upcoming competitions.

"We've got some transfers comingin and we've had some really internalimprovement with some of our people. So now it's just a matter of everyone staying healthy and hoping we race well in the races we need to," said Bomba.

Looking ahead, the Gaels will compete in the Capital City XC Challenge on Sept. 30 in Ottawa, Ont. and the Bayfront Classic hosted by McMaster University on Oct. 13 in Hamilton, Ont. Later on, the team will compete at the OUA Championships in Waterloo Ont. on Oct. 28th.