Marshall Cross Country Enters 2025 Season with Depth and High Expectations

 By Ben Anderson


    The start the fall semester officially marks the beginning of the Cross-Country season for the Marshall Thundering Herd. 

 

    The Thundering Herd enter the 2025 campaign following a successful season a year ago. Kylee Mastin became the first female runner in program history to win a conference title, capturing the Sun Belt Conference Championship. This was one of the multiple historic milestones in the past few seasons for the women’s team as Abby Herring became the program's first NCAA National Championship Qualifer in 2023. 


    The women’s team this season is led by the trio of returnees: senior Hannah Wyler sophomore Destiny Berryman, and graduate student transfer Maggie Froning. Wyler is coming off an incredible junior campaign, where she became a first-time Cross Country Sun Belt All-Conference member as a second team representative following her ninth-place finish at last season’s championships. Marshall Cross Country head coach Caleb Bowen said he is ready for the trio to take on the leadership roles of their teammates of the past. 


    “I want to call them the three horsemen,” Bowen said in an interview with First and Ben. “I think they’re going to be the crew. It may not always be Hannah (Wyler), it may not always be Destiny (Berryman). I hope they’re kind of just shifting back and forth, working off each other, pushing each other.”


    Bowen said that the trio has the potential to be strong contenders in the Sun Belt Conference Championships. 


    "I do see them being in position to be competing for that top spot at the conference meet, at least in the top 7,” Bowen said. “Anything can happen at the conference meet, but I think they’re going to be in that top 7, first-team all-conference realm.”

    

    The men’s team return the top four men from the 2024 SBC Championships. Bowen said that he enjoys the depth of the men’s team and the potential that it has. 


    “Brady Dawkins, he was our number one guy at conference last year, and had a great race there,” Bowen said. “Garrett Ferguson, he’s consistently been one of the those guys competing for that spot. Sophomore Justin Lipscomb, he’s king of been in that role as well. I think John Duvall, he’s been a guy who’s been there in track season a little bit more than cross, but he’s been training really well.”


    The depth of the talent on the men’s squad extends to the newcomers on the team as well.


    “We brought in two grad transfers, Clay Kelly and Max Sowers from Radford,” Bowen said. “They’re looking really good. The freshman, Connor Myers and Ryan Hughes, they’re looking pretty good.” 


    The first road meet for the Herd is the Southern Showcase hosted by Jacksonville State in Huntsville, Alabama. Bowen said that the meet provides great preparation for the conference championships. 


    “A lot of the southern schools like Troy, South Alabama, they will be there and it’s always good to see them,” Bowen said. “We don’t usually see them within the regular season. So, good opportunity to kind of see where we stack up and also, it’s a great course. They’ve advertised this course as being the fastest course in America, it’s a great opportunity to run fast against fast competition, and then two getting exposure to the hot and humid climates because that what Foley, Alabama, our conference championship site is going to be.”


    The Thundering Herd open the season on August 29th at the YMCA Kennedy Center with the Thundering Herd XC Invitational with the men’s and women’s teams both running the 5k. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marshall University Welcomes Gerald J. Harrison as 23rd Director of Athletics

By Ben Anderson      Gerald J. Harrison has been hired as the new leader of the Marshall Thundering Herd. Harrison comes to Marshall after serving Austin Peay where he served the same position since 2018.      Marshall University President Brad D. Smith said that Harrison checked all of the boxes when looking for a new director of athletics.        “Someone who's a strategic thinker,” Smith said. “Thinks over multiple time horizons. Someone who drives for results, establishes bold goals, figures out the priorities and resources them. Someone who builds a high performance culture, who can attract and retain the top talent, and then create an environment where they can do the best work of their lives. Someone who innovates for impact wakes up every day and says there has to be a new and better way. To make this happen and last but not least, someone who inspires through personal action brings intellectual curiosity, humility, teamwork...
Read more

Herd That Takes Care of Sikh Warriors In 2025 TBT Opener

 By Ben Anderson      Herd That won its first-round matchup against the Sikh Warriors in the West Virginia Regional of The Basketball Tournament in Charleston Friday night 84-71.       Herd That is without Jon Elmore and Tavion Kinsey until further notice due to their NBA Summer League Obligations. For them to be available for Sunday, the Toronto Raptors have to defeat the Sacramento Kings later today, according to Herd That head coach Ot Elmore.      The absence of its two top stars was apparent in the first half as Herd That struggled offensively, shooting 38% percent from the field, and 29% from behind the arc.       “I think the main thing you saw there was these guys are used to playing with Jon (Elmore),” Elmore said. “When you got a point guard like Jon (Elmore), it gets the offense moving. That first half we scored 36 points, we scored 48 points in the second half. A lot of that was JP (Tokoto) and Jacore...
Read more

Herd That TBT run ends at hands of Best Virginia

 By Ben Anderson      The #3 seeded Best Virginia upset the #2 seeded Herd That 82-75 on Sunday night in the TBT West Virginia Regional Semi-Final.       Tre Mitchell hit the game-winning jumper in the Elam ending to give Best Virginia the win. His 23 points led the WVU-alumni team into the final of the West Virginia Region where it will play the #1 seeded Elite Nation tomorrow night.       “They dropped into that zone,” Mitchell said. “I truly feel that anytime I get the ball in the middle of the zone, I can do anything with it.”      The difference in the game was the battle of free throws. Best Virginia made 14 of 17 – 82.4%, to Herd That's 10 of 20 – 50%.       “We knew we had to match their intensity and match their physicality,” Best Virginia head coach Jerrod West said.      With the heavy physicality from both teams throughout the contest, it became very clear that the g...
Read more