By Adam Hensley
Give them two years, and the sophomores in the Hawkeye cross-country program might just turn into one of the top senior classes in history.
Focusing on the present — specifically, the Bradley Invitational on Friday and the Pre-National meet on Saturday — Iowa’s sophomore class aims to continue its robust second season with the program.
“There’s so much talent here, and with time and experience, we can make it develop and grow,” Lauren Opatrny said.
Opatrny, along with Andrea Shine, heads the sophomore class on the women’s side of competition.
Shine said her class plays an integral part in the team’s success this season and also attributed the Hawkeyes’ success to a strong upperclassman influence.
This is the first season the duo has competed side by side — Opatrny suffered a stress fracture going into the 2015 season and endured another one that developed toward the latter half of competition.
Shine finished 10th in Iowa’s last meet, the Regional Preview. Opatrny finished right behind at 11th.
The pair received high praise from their coaches following the women’s third-place finish on a wet, competitive Saturday morning in Iowa City.
Others took note as well.
“Lauren and Andi have really stepped up,” Daniel Soto said. “As [they] keep training together, they’ll get faster and faster and move up that Big Ten list.”
The Valley high-school graduate noted the progress and goals of sophomores Bailey Hesse-Withbroe, Ian Eklin, and him.
“Me, Bailey, and Ian — we’re training together and doing our runs together,” he said. “The goal is to keep moving up, eventually, instead of being some of the top [sophomores] in the Big Ten, to be flat-out top runners in the Big Ten.”
Soto claimed the top spot for the Hawkeyes in the Regional Preview, finishing second behind Hawkeye Adam Jones, who ran unattached.
The top eight runners (including Jones) in the meet were Hawkeyes, and five of those Hawkeyes are sophomores.
Eklin and Hesse-Withbroe crossed the finish line at fifth and sixth. Fellow sophomore Daniel Murphy (eighth) also cracked the top 10, and second-year Hawkeyes Cole Mullins and Kallin Khan placed in the top-20.
In his first season as the coach of the cross-country team, Randy Hasenbank is still in the process of evaluating his runners. The sophomore class has caught his eye in more ways than one.
“What stands out [the most] is their character,” Hasenbank said. “They’re great people, very friendly, polite, and coachable. Underneath the surface, they’re very competitive. I think they’ve got the quality ingredients to be very good.”
The drive to win and contend is one of the pillars Hasenbank preaches to his team.
With the Hawkeyes’ final two meets this weekend before championship season, the stakes are higher. Hasenbank said to have what some would call a “great” class, the runners must compete well in the championship season, and the time to prove it starts on Oct. 30 at the Big Ten Championships.
Ask any of the sophomores in the program, and they’ll tell you good things are to come.
When asked just how good his class can become, Soto didn’t hesitate.
“Especially with our team, the sky’s the limit,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to say anything but that, but I think that if we keep working hard, keep training, we could mess around and potentially be one of the top teams — if not the top team — in the Big Ten.”