The Pratt Community College cross country team emphasized recruiting in the offseason. That investment has paid off in an expanded roster going into the 2017 cross country season. The cross country team returns a core of runners from last year with several new additions who will contribute to the Blue and White this season.

"We have five returning sophomores on a team that had nine total team members," said head coach Eric Larson. "We have grown adding fourteen freshmen to the men's and women's side. Last year the women's side didn't have a team. This year we have eight girls that are going to be running for the Beavers. It's pretty exciting. Most of the girls are fairly young. A lot of them don't have much cross country experience because they come from a track background running middle distance. I'm having them run cross country to get them ready for the track season. They are slowly growing and progressing. We've been practicing for a little over two weeks now and there has been a bunch of progress made. On the guy's side, we have a lot of talent that can be good. A lot of them still need to learn what it takes to run at the college level. A few of them are still adjusting. By the time we hit the end of the season in late October/ early November I feel the guys should be rolling.

Gone are NJCAA national qualifiers Justin Moore and Fred Vega. Several PCC runners are being looked at to step up for the Beavers.

"One of the freshmen from the Houston, Texas area, Elijah Battle is emerging as the top runner on the team," Larson said. "He has Fred talent, but I think he will be better than Fred was last year based on workouts. Hopefully sophomore returner William Charles from West Palm Beach, Florida can complement Battle this season. He has improved greatly from last year so I'm expecting him to have a really good cross country season. I'm expecting him to drop at least three minutes from his 8K time from last year. After that come the freshmen who ran well in high school, upper sixteen minute, low seventeen minute 5K. It's just going to take them a little time to adjust to the 8K. As we get to each race I see them getting better and better. The goal is to be good at the end of the season versus what we do early in the season."

The PCC women's cross country team has greatly expanded from last year. They return a strong runner in Ilia Rosa from last year's squad.

"The girl's top runner this year looks to be freshmen Anastasia Graves from Silver Lake, Kansas," Larson said. "I'm expecting big things out of her this year. She is going to be our top runner. She should easily be top 15 in the region by the time we get to the region race in October. Then Aminata Kenyawini from Arizona. She has a lot of talent. I see her being in the top two as well. After that at three, four, and five it's really up to the freshmen. I see Ilia Rosa as the number three by the time all things are said and done by the end of the season. We also have Leisha Madison from Lancaster, Texas. She'll be probably the fourth runner with our fifth being Ashley Marcelin."

With the runners returning and joining the PCC cross country team the Beavers look to be a competitive team at the end of the season.

"I expect the guy's team to be ranked by the end of the season," Larson said. "There is no reason why we can't be. As long as injuries stay away and no one gets hurt we should be ranked. The girl's team I expect to grow as runners through the season. A lot of them are still learning to be a true distance runner and learning how to run a cross country race. I still expect the girls to compete at a high level. We should be able to beat a few teams in our region with our group of five. There's no reason why we can't. I expect hard work and eventually that hard work is going to pay off down the road."

The PCC cross country team runs in the Terry Masterson Twilight Classic in Hutchinson, KS to start the 2017 season.