The Oswego State men’s cross country team has gotten off to an exceptional start so far in the 2016 season, finishing in the top three in both of their meets.

The Lakers head into this weekend’s Robert Wesleyan Invitational riding a wave of momentum in an attempt to push themselves as individual runners as well as a team.

Coach Sarah Ritchie’s message of every individual runner pushing one another has paid dividends so far to this point in the season, however, there is a new message heading into the upcoming meet.

“Our goal this weekend is for everyone to run the way they want to,” Ritchie said.“ it’s less about strategy and more about letting them run how they want to and picking the spots they want to run faster and accelerate.”

“There will be quite a few SUNY schools there this weekend,” said Ritchie “it will be a good way to get a feel for our competition so we can stack up against them.”

From a runner’s perspective, sophomore Dylan McCarthy is taking this weekend’s meet as more of a means to improve, rather than as a competition.

“These early season meets don’t really matter much,” McCarthy said. “We’re just trying to improve for the post season meets. The SUNYAC and Regionals are what really matters.”

“Last year, this meet was a good opportunity to try something different,” McCarthy said. “Going out faster and breaking out from the group that I usually run with.”

This weekend will be huge for the Lakers as the season begins to pick up, because even as the team isn’t focusing on winning, it can be vital in boosting the confidence of all the runners into the most important part of the season.

“It’s been a hard training week,” Ritchie said. “I just want to push them to try something new to get them used to something else and change up their approach. The next two races will be the same.”

The next two races before the SUNYAC meet will be more of this different approach from Ritchie’s team of runners in order to get their bodies into peak condition for their biggest meet of the season.

“I want them to come up with their plans, whether it be by themselves, or work in groups if they are comfortable with that, Ritchie said. “It should work well with them, and I trust them to do something that helps them. We obviously always like to win, but the biggest thing is getting everybody comfortable this weekend.”

The biggest emphasis for this meet is improvement.

It will create a foundation for improvement that will allow Oswego State to accomplish their main goal of being a top 5 finisher in the SUNYAC

“Regardless of what the goal is, if we chose to run in a pack and we accomplished that,” Ritchie said. “If we are able to win with that as well it just makes it better.”

The Roberts Wesleyan Invitational could prove to be a pivotal one in the Lakers season by allowing them to become better versions of the runners they already are by expanding their range of strategies as runners.

This weekend, especially going up against several schools in the SUNYAC, it is important for runners to combine the ability to reserve their energy and allowing themselves to grow as runners.

Even though the result isn’t of primary concern to the team, it is imperative to take what they see and learn as means to progress and try and gain advantages on their conference opponents.

The Lakers will head to Rochester for the race beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning looking to accomplish their goals and build momentum headed into the SUNYAC and Regional meets.