Men's and Women's Cross Country Holds First Practice of 2018 Season

BOONE, N.C. -- With the school year just days away, the 2018 Appalachian State men's and women's cross country teams have returned to campus to begin training for the upcoming 2018 season. The Mountaineers held their first training sessions on Wednesday.

Rundown
With numerous trails around the High Country, the Black and Gold took full advantage. App State trained at a stretch of trails around Trout Lake on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The trails are just a portion of a stretch of 28 miles in Moses Cone National Park along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Head Coach Michael Curcio on the First Day
"We are excited that everyone is back on campus and the kids are happy to be back, We are able to train in a little more mild temperatures here in the mountains. It's also nice to see other programs from across the region to come over to this area for their training."

Who Returns for the Men
Fresh off a Sun Belt title in 2017, Curcio welcomes back eight runners from last season, led by All-Sun Belt honoree Gable Dershem. Dershem earned Second Team honors with an eighth place finish at the conference meet last season in a personal best 25:24.3. Ian Foley just missed All-Sun Belt honors last season with a 16th place finish at the Sun Belt Championships and Michael Flanagan was 21st.  Luke Bennett and Ben Cignarale also competed at the conference meet and return, along with Lawson Benfield, Zachary Mercer and Jacob Toczko.

Who Returns for the Women
App State has posted two top-two finishes in the past two seasons at the Sun Belt Championships. After winning the title in 2016, the Black and Gold took second at the conference meet in 2017. Appalachian sees two All-Sun Belt runners return in Emily Fedders and Megan Scannell. Fedders crossed 13th last season at the Sun Belt Championships in 18:10.1 and Scannell was right behind in 15th in a season-best 18:12.3. Katelyn Butler just missed out on all-conference accolades with a 16th place finish. In all, 17 other runners also return in Grace Brooks, Phylissa Greeley, Sarah Hajnos, Kayla Hall, Sarah Hoffert, Jennae Jacob, Erin Jameson, Samantha Kolor, Annika Merkh, Molly Pusateri, Natalie Richardson, Grace Rogers, Elisa Sargent, Ann Sekutowski, Ellen Spencer, Casey Turro and Sarah Venable.

Newcomers
On the men's side, Curcio welcomes in six new athletes in Isaac Benz, Ryan Brown, Sawyer Gwyn-Rowsom, Dakota Mendenhall, Charles Pace and Conrad Phillips. Brown, Mendenhall, Pace and Phillips all are natives of North Carolina with Gwyn-Rowsom hailing from New York and Benz from Wisconsin.

For the women, a total of eight newcomers join the program in Kathleen Burroughs, Izzy Evely, Katherine Fearn, Kylee Frady, Lia Greengrass, Caroline Grier, Bridget Kunkel and Jenna Lineberry. Seven newcomers are from North Carolina, with Kunkel hailing from Illinois.

What's Next
The Mountaineers will continue training through this week and next week in preparation for the Covered Bridge Open at the Don Kennedy Trails in Boone on Aug. 31.