River Forest, IL - As the Dominican University cross country teams take the course at Rockford this weekend for a Pre-NACC meet, Head Coach Megan Vaccaro is excited about how her team has looked during preseason practices.

"Practices have been going well! I can tell the team put in some mileage over the winter months," said Coach Vaccaro. "With the season being so short, I think the most challenging thing will be to get a decent amount of speed work under our belt with the limited amount of time that we have."

The women's team will rely on the leadership of senior Mary Eterno. "I am looking forward to seeing Mary finish out her career here at DU, commented Coach Vaccaro. "She has been a strong leader for the team both on the course and off." On the men's side, Coach Vaccaro is excited to see Fernando Gonzalez's improvement from year one." Fernando has put in some work in the off-season and I look forward to seeing what he can do in the short season that we have. I hope that we can use the short season as a stepping stone for a great season next year."

In a season where cross country will be competing in just two meets, the team goals will be slightly different as the importance is being placed on keeping everybody healthy. "It's always a challenge making sure everyone stays injury-free, but even more so this season since we only have two meets," said Coach Vaccaro."The goal is always to do our best come meet day and this year I am excited we just get to compete!"

The cross country teams begin their season today at Rockford. The women's 6k starts the meet at 10:00 a.m. with the men's 8k to follow at 10:45 a.m.