FITCHBURG — The Fitchburg State University men’s cross country team is aiming high after winning the last two MASCAC titles, and three of the last four.
The expectations are the same for 2019, and despite losing some frontrunners, the Falcons seem to be reloading and not rebuilding as they shoot for a three-peat.
“The year we didn’t win the title in the last four years we got second,” Fitchburg State head coach Jim Jellison said. “Our goal this year is a three-peat. We’ve got a bunch of really good freshmen; we’ve got two of our top four from last year back. We’re working really hard and we have the potential of winning it again.”
Junior Jacob Movsessian will be taking the lead role on the Falcons this season after finishing as the third-best runner in the conference just one year ago with a time of 27:39.28 at the 8K course at Mount Greylock. He was the Falcons’ top performer at the MASCAC championship last year. Fitchburg State looks to rely on him more after the graduation of Joe Darrigo and Anthony Darrigo, who also finished in the top 10 at the MASCAC meet.
Fellow junior Tim Sheehy finished 10th (28:31.55) at last year’s MASCAC championship, marking the final of four Falcons last year to receive All-Conference honors. Sheehy will ascend into the No. 2 role on the team to help replace the loss of the Darrigo brothers.
“Movsessian and Sheehy are the captains of the team,” Jellison said. “They’re the leaders of the team, both by example and working with the kids to bring them along.”
Brian O’Sullivan from Narragansett Regional, Sam Flint from Metheun, Cam Davis from Gardner, Matt Catarius (St. John’s), and transfer student Trevor Fields have a high likelihood of being in the top five to seven runners on the team by the end of the season. All of them are new athletes to the program. Connor Dandy from Monty Tech and Ethan Gaudreault should also be in the mix.
Returners Brandon DiGregorio and Joe Weston will also factor into discussions for top seeds on the team.
“It’s going to be a battle to be in our top 10,” Jellison said. “It’s going to be a real battle. There are a bunch of other guys who could move up, as well. We have a really hard-working group of kids, and they’ve done really well in our second week of camp.”
Since it is highly likely that the depth in the top seven will come from runners new to the program, it was a significant year on the recruiting trails. There are a number of reasons for the good recruiting fortunes, one of which is the renovated Landry Arena, which is a dedicated athletes-only space on campus.
The facility has now been open for a full year, and the team has been training with strength coach Jim McGuire as part of its summer camp. Out of the 25 athletes on the team this year, 10 are new to lifting. With just two weeks of weight training under their belts, they are already seeing improvements.
“The Landry is a big, big selling point for kids,” Jellison said. “It’s one of the best facilities around to train in. It’s indoors and we don’t have to use the gym anymore. It’s more team bonding, and great work for the kids. It made a huge difference in recruiting and how well kids ran last year.”
Jellison is quick to credit the addition of veteran coach Al Halper, from Holy Cross and Worcester State, to the staff, which benefited recruiting efforts greatly. Halper is going into his second season with the Falcons as an assistant coach. Jellison also has two other permanent assistants and one volunteer assistant at his disposal.
“They’ve all made a big difference on how we are able to get kids,” Jellison said. “It gives (us) three or four other people to help contact kids and get them to visit. The kids who were on the team last year did a great job in talking to recruits when they came on campus and showed them around.”
Fitchburg State opens at Keene State College on Saturday before holding its annual home contest, the Jim Sheehan Memorial Invite, at the Doyle Conservation Area in Leominster on Sept. 7. The meet starts at 10:30 a.m. for the women and 11:15 a.m. for the men, and all alumni of the program can run for free. In total there will be around 11 teams involved.
“We’ve had really good turnout for the Sheehan in the last couple of years,” Jellison said. “It has been great. All of the teams have heard about the course and it is a great course to run on. It’s a good spectator course because it loops around two or three times.”
The critical MASCAC championship is set for Nov. 2 in Worcester. Last year’s conference championship was a close battle, with Fitchburg State winning (46 points), followed close behind by Bridgewater State (50) and Westfield State (52).
“It’s always tough to project, because you don’t know what everybody else has got,” Jellison said. “Bridgewater is probably the team to beat, and then we’ll be giving it a good shot, we’ll give it our best. It depends how the freshmen come along and if we can stay healthy.”
