Gustavus Head Coach Dale Bahr is looking forward to his second year at the helm as the Gusties return six letterwinners from a squad that finished eighth at the MIAC Championships and 16th out of 25 teams at the NCAA Central Region meet last year. Bahr’s squad lost 4 letterwinners to graduation but five first-year runners joining the group will replace those vacancies.
The Gusties top returners include seniors Jeremy Kuhn (St. Michael, Minn.), Kurt Prieve (Fairbault, Minn.), Nicholas Ross (Hastings, Minn.) and Carson Smith (Prior Lake, Minn.), juniors Mark Bartley (Blue Earth, Minn.), Anders Bowman (Plymouth, Minn.), Jonathan Kasprisin (White Bear Lake, Minn.) and Alex Thornton (Byron, Minn.) and sophomore Ian Gibbs-Hall (Duluth, Minn.). Four of those returners represented Gustavus at the regional meet last year with all four runners crossing the finish line within one minute of each other. Bowman finished in 91st place with a time of 27:08.4, Ross crossed the line in 97th place at 27:19.2, Smith in 100th place at 27:21.7 and Bartley in 130th place at 28:07.1.
“This season we have added more depth to our roster,” Bahr acknowledged. “Last season we had a good volume of training but it wasn’t done the right way. This year the guys had a great offseason regimen with smart training and the team is feeling good about the 2010 season.”
The Gustie men begin their season on Wednesday, September 1 in a dual meet against Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minn.