COVENTRY — Head coach Erin Malcolm said her “hard-working” Coventry High School boys cross country team is set up to make a run next season.

The team finished 2008 strong, she said, setting up the 2009 season.

“Last year, we did very well at the end of the season,” she said. “We had most of the boys team run a personal record at the league meet. Chris Sherwood, a senior last year, broke the school record (he ran 16:59) and made second team. Chris is now running for Malone University, but is red-shirting this year due to an injury.”

Coming into this season, Malcolm said, the team hoped to start up where it had left off.

“This year, we had a lot of meets change their date, so we actually ran the invitations in somewhat of a reverse order,” she said. “The boys ran the same time in the season opener invitational as they did having it in the middle of the year last year. So, when you look at it that way, we did start where we left off.”

Coventry will lose three seniors, Malcolm stated, but a number of key athletes are set to return.

“This year, we will be graduating three senior boys: Brian Butler, Ryan Dyke and Jay Powell,” she said. “We will be returning juniors Ed Stafford, Jordan Gable and Will Tenney, and sophomores Brandon Arnold, Cody Wallick and Ben Ford.”

The three seniors were the team captains this year.

“Our captains are usually our senior members,” said Malcolm. “They play a huge role in the success of our team. When a team has a strong group of hard-working captains, it sets the tone of the team. Our athletes become more dedicated and serious about running when the leaders take it seriously.”

The coach said her team really showed up at the Wadsworth Grizzly Invitational this season, where the boys team placed second.

“We have a lot of hard-working individuals and great leaders on the team,” she said. “We’ll miss our seniors who are graduating, but we hope to have our underclassmen step it up and fill their shoes next year. We might not have huge numbers on our team, but the athletes we do have make coaching worth it.”

According to Malcolm, the team showed improvement during this season.

“We improved from last season by having a tighter team pack, which allowed us to place higher than last year in our invitationals,” she said.

The 2009 season wrapped up Oct. 24 at Malone with the districts.

“It was a cold and windy day. The times weren’t fast under the conditions, but the boys ran better than they did when we ran at the Malone Invitational,” Malcolm said. “That’s all we can ask for — to run better at the last meet of the season compared to the first, which we accomplished. If the course conditions and the weather would have been better, we would have seen a lot of personal records broken.”

Malcolm, who has been head coach of the boys team for five years, said the bar already is set for next year.

“[The goal is to] finish higher in the league standing and have more personal records broken,” she said. “We need to work on our summer training and getting our miles in during the off season. Putting the time in during the off season will allow us to run higher mileage during the season and it will make us stronger and less injury prone.”

The coach said she believes she has the athletes to make an impact next season.

“I look for Ed Stafford and Brandon Arnold to keep improving and getting stronger,” she said. “Andrew Bullock will be a freshman next season. I look for him to be a contender. We also have a great group of junior high boys who can be really good if they continue to run, and I hope to have them on the varsity team when they are freshmen.”