2017 ECU Cross Country Season Preview

By Joe Corley
ECUPirates.com

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Since taking over the ECU men's and women's distance programs last October, Josey Weaver has been charging full-steam ahead implementing his plans.

With the cross country season beginning at 5 p.m. Friday with the American Athletic Conference preview at Temple, Weaver is optimistic after what he believes was a positive, productive summer of training.

"On our summer workout packet I have a statement I always put, and it's simply just, 'The time will come when fall will ask what were you doing all summer,'" Weaver said. "In our conference and in the division we're in, if we're not working, someone else is. You're not going to win cross country championships in the summer, but you will lose them.

"Luckily, our guys and girls did a great job, just building base mileage, coming in trying to be as strong and as fit as they can be. We're going to add some interval work throughout the year, then a little speed work closer to the championship season."

Weaver's training ideas vary from runner to runner. He understands that not all runners respond the same way to the same workouts.

"I'm probably the most individualized coach, I would say, in North Carolina," he said. "I've been around and I know a lot of coaching buddies who believe only in high mileage, or they believe only in low mileage. I believe that there's not one method that's perfect for everybody.

"You've got to know your athletes. On the men's side, we have guys running as high as 90 to 95 miles per week, but we also have guys running 40 miles per week. On the women's side, we have some up as high as 85 miles per week, and we also have some at 35 miles per week. We're very individualized, but it's all about making the individuals succeed. I tell them for them to be successful as a team, I've got to get the individual as fast as I can and in return make the Pirates the best we can be."

Weaver is a former standout runner for Western Carolina who came to ECU after a productive two-year stint at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kan. He took over the Pirates' cross country teams – he also coaches the distance group in track and field under head coach Curt Kraft -- just before the AAC and NCAA regional meets last year.

"I was still learning names going into the conference championships," he said. "We had a tough day, but I was impressed with how resilient the runners were. They showed me two weeks later because they bounced back and had pretty good finishes at the regional championship."

That, as he said, got the ball rolling right into the indoor track and field season, which transitioned into an outdoor season in which ECU's men's distance group scored the second-most points of any team at the AAC meet.
The Pirates lost a couple of key runners from that team, but the potential is there for the improvement to continue.

"(The success we had at the league meet) normally gives you an idea of what could be down the road in a couple of years," Weaver said. "ECU has always been really talented in the throws and the sprints and the jumps. The competitor in myself is, I want to get the distance group ready so they can help."

This fall, the men will be looking for leadership from two sets of brothers – Dean and Bakri Abushouk, and twins Nick and Andrew Ciaccia. Leaders on the women's side include Tori Cooke, Grace Sullivan, Sara Hamon and Mikayla Stoudt.

After the opener, ECU has meets at N.C. State on Sept. 15 and Wingate eight days later, then begins the push toward the championship meets with the Paul Short Run at Lehigh on Sept. 29 and the Pirate Invitational at Lake Kristi on Oct. 13. The AAC meet is Oct. 28, back at Temple.

"The Paul Short meet, that's where the meat of our season starts," Weaver said. "That's where we want to be lining up and dropping some fast times."
That's where the dividends from the work the runners put in over the summer should start showing up.

"I'm very pleased," Weaver said. "I had individual meeting with everyone where we sat down and talked about their summer. We're not banged up. We have a couple of people rehabbing, but overall we're pretty healthy. I'm excited with what they did in the summer."

Players Mentioned

Andrew Ciaccia

Mikayla Stoudt

Grace Sullivan

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