Season Preview: Women's Cross Country looking for 25th consecutive winning season in 2015

By Caleb Scott

ADA — The Ohio Northern women's cross country team posted its 24th consecutive winning season in 2014.

Under seventh-year head coach Jason Maus, Northern will look to build on that success in 2015.

The Polar Bears return six letterwinners, including three seniors, from last year's squad that went 90-72 and finished fifth at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships.

"We are really emphasizing the word competitive this season," Maus said. "We want to be more competitive this season and get back to being in the top three teams in the conference. We have a great core group coming back from last season and I expect them to really stand out. We are looking for someone to step into that leadership role and be the front-runner for us this season."

Northern had a deep team a year ago with seven different women posting a top-7 finish and Maus hopes that depth and experience leads to big things in 2015.

Three time letterwinner senior Kara Sosinski leads the list of returning letterwinners this season. She had eight top-7 finishes for Northern in 2014.

Also returning for ONU is senior Rebekah McCutchen, who posted top-7 finishes in five races in 2014.

Senior Margaret Sorg and junior Genevieve Marchese also return after solid 2014 campaigns.

Junior Morgan Rouch returns after a solid 2014 campaign, where she lettered and recorded three top seven finishes.    

The Polar Bears also return sophomores Emily Richards and Alexis Kandel after lettering in their freshman seasons and recording three and five top-7 finishes, respectively.

Northern will look to their incoming group of freshman to make an immediate impact on the season.

"We have a really big group of freshman coming in this year," Maus said. "We expect some of them to contribute immediately. With a great returning group and our incoming freshman, we expect to be competitive in the league this season."