Chicago, Ill. - Heading into the 2025 cross country season, the Scarlet Hawks find themselves in a similar position as last year - welcoming several new runners to the program.

Last season, the women's team welcomed six new runners to join their two returning runners in Sophia Halama and Valerie Lending. 

This season, it's the men's team going through a transformation, with six new runners joining returners Mason Brewer, Lane Regan and Gabe Durazo.

Head Coach Tyler McQuality chalks that up to the natural cycle of recruiting and roster construction.

"We had a big graduating class on the men's side, so we obviously prioritized the men's distance recruiting aspect a lot last year.," said McQuality. "And we're very excited for the class that we ended up getting. Six freshman on the men's team is really exciting."

McQuality is confident that the women's team will be in a better place this year with veteran leadership, including senior runner Halama as the women's team captain. 

"Obviously we have some great leadership on the women's side returning," said McQuality. "I think that's the exciting part about every year is that it's a little bit different. Every year is a different team, different journey, different goals, expectations. We coach to where the team's roster is at as a whole. So what we're trying to accomplish with the women's roster is different than what we're trying to accomplish with the men's roster this fall."

Still, with eight new runners between the men's and women's team, McQuality knows their training can't be one-size-fits-all, and keeping them and the entire team healthy is a goal every year.

"Everybody comes from a different program, different coaching, and we kind of want to slowly integrate them into the way we do things'" McQuality said. "I think that's important that we individualize their training as much as we possibly can when it comes to mileage intensity, volume. Even into the minute details as much as we possibly can to be honest, because that's very, very important. One of my biggest coaching training philosophies is the best way to get better at running is running, but really what that means is staying healthy over a long period of time."

McQuality continued: "So now what we want to train and coach our athletes is just to keep them healthy. And again, everybody comes from a different background. I think it's a lot of conversations that we talk to them about during recruiting process and once they commit to Illinois Tech and their transitioning into our program, it's a lot of the communication back and forth from the coaches, from the athletes making sure they're checking in, getting their stuff done over the summer that they need to do to be prepared for, for the fall. One of the things I learned from my college coach is that the first half of our cross country season is that it's not right now. We're actually in the second half of our cross country season. It just happens to be our competition part of the season. But if everybody's taking care of what they need to take care of over the summer, that's the first half of the cross country season - the summer training."

As for setting goals for his teams this season, McQuality knows that, even though he expects both teams to be competitive, he also knows the men's and women's rosters are at different places experience-wise. While there are three returning runners on the men's team, including men's captain and senior Brewer, not knowing what to expect yet from the newcomers is the learning point.

"I think on the men's side, it's hard from a competition standpoint in that we just don't know (what to expect)," McQuality said. "Especially some of our first-years trying to learn and understand how they come into learning the 8K distance. It is what we're truly focused on this fall with the men's team, and then we'll see different goals in the years to come."

On the women's side, with more returning runners and experience, McQuality has different expectations.

"I think with our women's team we have the opportunity to be top three in the NACC (Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference), which is something we've never done," said McQuality. "So I think if everybody stays healthy and can do the things I think we're, we're capable of individually and collectively this fall we can set a new benchmark for where our programs can be at and be a top three team in the conference, which is really, really exciting."

For McQuality and the Scarlet Hawk runners, that journey begins on Friday, August 29th, when the team competes in the North Park-Concordia Chicago Early Invitational at Schiller Woods in Chicago, with the women starting at 4:00pm followed by the men at 4:45pm.