It looks to be a promising season this year for both SF State cross country teams. New faces will sprint through Golden Gate Park this year, and two of them are already All-Americans.

“As a generalization, both (the) men’s and women’s teams, I feel, are as good as any team that we’ve had,” head coach Tom Lyons said.

For the women’s team, Anna Bretan is the runner to watch. Bretan, who transferred to SF State in the spring of 2007, is most likely to be this year’s top female runner. Bretan, a senior, ran for the University of San Francisco for two years before transferring to SF State. She ran for the track team last year and placed third at Nationals in the 5000-meter race, earning herself the title of All-American.

“We have a big team, a great team, a motivated team, so this year should be really good. We’re starting really well,” Bretan said. “We’re starting with good strong training. Everyone is doing the mileage so training is good. I think that every meet is equally tough and hopefully we’ll just get in better shape as the season progresses.”

Lyons also pointed out senior Vera Ross and sophomore Tanya Ferreira as two other promising runners on the women’s team.

On the men’s team, senior Josh Babiak is the expected top performer this season, Lyons said. Babiak ran for SF State in ‘05 and ’06 but took last year off and is now back for one last season. Babiak earned All-American honors in the ‘05 season.

Also to watch on the men’s team are junior Dan Napieralski, a new transfer to SF State and last year’s top 1,500 runner in Northern California Junior Colleges, along with returning senior Jason Karbelk.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Napieralski said. “We have the strongest team we’ve had in the last couple of years and all the guys on the team have put in the mileage, so its all going to come through for us. I’m not too worried about the season meets, what I’m worried about is conference. That’s when the season really starts.”

“I think we’re going to do really well,” said Babiak, the men’s team’s All-American. “We’re all pushing each other a lot harder this year than we have in any year that I’ve been here.”

Babiak also said he is glad to get new runners like Napieralski who will “add speed to our team” and returning runners who have been working very hard in the off-season.

“As a team, we’ve been seventh, fifth, and sixth the past three years. We’d like to obviously move up a little,” Lyons said, speaking about the team’s performance in past conference meets. “I think we have a better team than last year when we were sixth and even a better team then when we were fifth in ‘06.”

At Regional’s, Lyons and Cushman think both teams have a realistic chance of moving from last year’s 10th place finish to seventh or eighth place.

“Based on the workouts we’ve done, I think these are the best combined teams we’ve had since we’ve [he and Lyons] been here. This year I feel like we have two potential top eight or top 10 type teams in the region,” assistant coach Pete Cushman said.

Thinking of long-term goals, Lyons said, “Individually, with Josh as an All-American in cross country and Anna an All-American in track, obviously they would like to get back to the National Championships as individuals. It would be nice to see them there. If we can qualify individuals or a team to Nationals that’s ultimately the program’s goal.”

“My goals for the season are usually, around the experience of the team, “ Lyons said. “As long as they’re working hard and feel like improving then our team is a positive experience for everybody and I think from there that success comes from that.”

When asked what the toughest meet for both teams will be, Lyons said the very nature of the sport makes the meets at the season’s end the toughest ones.

“Its [always] the next meet,” he said, “In our sport, we don’t compete against other schools like other sports do. We go to meets where we compete against a number of different schools and we really work on things to get ourselves ready for the conference championships where everything counts. Your conference championship is really what you’re kind of measured by ... Our goal after that is to go to Regional’s and see how we pair up against other schools from the west and then get to Nationals.”

“I don’t think that one race will be harder then any other race,” said Bretan, the women’s All-American for track. “But some will be more important like [the] conference.”

Cushman also said while all the meets the SF State will attend are going to be hard, the more important meets will begin with the conference meet.

The men’s team this year has only three of its top seven runners returning. Notable among those lost is Academic All-American Batbileg Bor, who graduated last year. The women’s team is returning four of its top seven runners and lost their second strongest runner of last year, Shannon Weston who also graduated.

“I think with the improvement of our center guys and our new editions on the men’s side we should be fine,” Lyons said. “Overall we should do a little better. And on the women’s side ... I’m real happy with our group of incoming athletes, I think we’ll do fine.”

When asked why SF State students would find the cross country teams interesting, Lyons instead responded with a reason why students should support all the athletic teams.

“With student-athletes, you’ve got students who are putting in this extra activity where they go out and participate in competitions at other schools and are wearing the San Francisco State uniform. They represent the student body and we do take that pretty seriously. So, whether they’re doing well in races or just being good ambassadors for the school, I think that’s a positive thing.”