With the addition of four freshmen to NIU cross country, the team has become more competitive and found more success than in previous seasons.

Ali Olson, Leah Raffety, Hannah Savage and Taylor Vinhal are those freshmen, and they have immediately made an impact on the program.

There are high expectations for the freshmen, but they don’t want to get their hopes up to high, too soon, said coach Greg Hipp.

“It surely is as talented as a freshman class that this program has had,” said Hipp. “We expect a lot from them in the future, but right now it’s about getting them adjusted to what we do and give them time to transition. As good as they are, they are are still freshmen, so they deserve some time to transition into college runners.”

In their first race as Huskies, Olson finished in second place for the Huskies. Raffety finished right behind her while fellow freshman Savage finished in 12th place to help the Huskies win the UIC opener.

In their second race they flip-flopped positions to help NIU finish third at the NIU Open. Vinhal has had to sit out due to a shin injury but hopes to return to the track soon.

“This year has been really good so far,” Olson said. “We came in with really high expectations and we have done pretty well so far. We have had a couple of injuries in the freshman class but they are recovering really well. One just came back [Savage] and one won’t be back ’til indoor [Vinhal]. It was a little rough in the beginning part of the season, but we have a pretty strong freshman class.”

Hipp believes part of NIU’s success has to do with the new class and he hopes that this continues in the coming years.

“They give us a lot of optimism now and later on what we can accomplish in the future,” Hipp said. “Them coming in here gives us the confidence that we need to be able to compete in the MAC.”

Olson said she is pleased with her season so far and is up for more challenges.

“It has been going pretty well,” Olson said. “I am pretty happy with the way I am performing. In high school I ran the 4K and now I am running the 5K. It is quite a bit, but I think I am adapting to it well and I have a 6K next week. I am looking forward to it because I never ran a 6K before so I am pretty excited to see how it turns out.”

The freshmen have been looking to senior Courtney Oldenburg for advice and are following her example. Oldenburg has been happy to be a role model.

“They are doing really well so far,” Oldenburg said. “They have adjusted really well. Ali [Olson] is the number two runner on our team right now. She has stepped up a lot and they work really well together. Overall they are a good fitting class and have bigger things to come with improvement.”