With the Nationally ranked Syracuse Orange Men's and Women's Cross-Country teams preparing for the 2015 season, I decided to take a page from our wildly successful "Get To Know Your Orange" series. Helping me out will be former Orange runners Jessie Petersen and Max Straneva who will give us some insight on their former teammates. Syracuse begins their season on September 5th at Colgate's Harry Lang Invitational.
Today we take a look at two runners with plenty of NCAA Championship experience, Junior Sydney Leiher and Senior Dan Lennon.
Name: Sydney Leiher
Year: Junior
Hometown: Beavercreek, OH
High School: Beavercreek
2014 Results :
NCAA Championships- 198th place (21:55.8 for 6k)
NCAA Northeast Regional- 56th place (21:35.04 for 6k)
ACC Championships- 79th place (21:56.1 for 6k)
Wisconsin Meet of Champions- 54th place (20:46 for 6k)
Coast-to-Coast Battle- 31st place (17:47 for 5k)
Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational- 1st place (21:01 for 6k)
Kevin's 2015 Preview: Sydney has been a top 7 runner for Syracuse for the last two years. In 2015, the team will look for her to continue to improve and move closer to the top Orange runners. The women's team suffered a bit last year because of the large gap between the top 7 and Sydney's one of the veterans that will be counted on to step up.
Name: Dan Lennon
Year: Senior
Hometown: Peru, NY
High School: Peru
2014 Results :
NCAA Championships- 45th place (31:03.3 for 10k)
NCAA Northeast Regional- 7th place (30:38.07 for 10k)
ACC Championships- 15th place (23:48.5 for 8k)
Wisconsin Meet of Champions- 24th place (24:09 for 8k)
Coast-to-Coast Battle- 15th place (24:47 for 8k)
Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational- 6th place (26:17 for 5.2 miles)
Max's Thoughts: "Dan might be the person that has matured the most as a person and runner since he arrived at SU. If Nationals was a 10k that strictly went uphill, Dan would probably be top 10 in the nation. He is a true 10k runner with a lot of strength. It will serve him very well for this XC season."
Kevin's 2015 Preview: Last Spring I sat at my laptop and watched the ACC Outdoor Championships 10k in its entirety. It took a ridiculous final lap from Louisville Cardinals runner Ernest Kibet to defeat Dan Lennon for the title. Even in defeat, Lennon showed the strength that Max is talking about and that's an attribute that will serve him well in XC. Lennon's definitely projecting as a strong All-American candidate this Fall.