UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The 2008 men’s and women’s cross country teams start their season at home this Friday (Aug. 29) at the annual SVSU Invitational. This season though there will be a new feel to the program as Grant Wall takes control of his first season as coach of cross country and track programs. Wall started off his tenure as coach earlier this month with a trip to Mio that he returned from pleasantly surprised with the amount of talent that was on the teams and the level of dedication each on of his runners showed over the summer.

On the men’s side Wall sees a lot of potential from his upper-class runners and will look to Derek Stone (Metamora, Mich./Lapeer East), Steve Genther (Laingsburg, Mich.) and Courtland Seaver (Freeland, Mich.) to set the pace for this season’s team. He and was very happy with his incoming freshman class as well and feels that several of the incoming freshman will push the returners and help the team get better as the season goes on. He wants his team to be hitting their stride as the are hitting the GLIAC Championship and the NCAA Regional meets.

On the women’s side things are looking equally as good. Maggie Stalker will look to lead a very talented group of lady Cardinals this fall that includes Amber Catlin (Alma, Mich.), Erin Dush (Sanford, Mich.) and Elayna Dush (Sanford, Mich.). The Cardinals will look to continue the great success they have had over the course of the past few seasons.

The Cardinals are looking to move back to the top of the GLIAC this season on both the men’s and women’s sides. Each team is expecting to make a push for the NCAA Regional’s with the expectations of being top-15 programs in the country.