Eastern cross country head coach Geoff Masanet is optimistic about the women’s cross country team and unsure about the men’s cross country team.

There’s a lot of optimism considering the Panthers will lose senior Erin O’Grady to graduation, but should return their No. 2-6 runners and will return junior Caitlin Napoleoni for her senior season.

Leading the pack next season should be Eastern red-shirt freshman Olivia Klaus. Klaus was the No. 2 runner and was a Second Team All-Ohio Valley Conference honoree.

Masanet said Klaus could develop into a national caliber runner as long as she stays healthy.

Klaus was derailed by a cold this season, which limited her capabilities at the NCAA Regionals and the OVC Championships even though she helped the Panthers to a third-place finish, their best since 2006.

Klaus, Napoleoni and sophomore Brittany Arthur should serve as the top runners.

Masanet said the team should still be fairly young as the Panthers will return all of their runners, but they’re only sophomores.

He said a big difference this season was that O’Grady was effective on the course and during practice.

“She’s been a good leader from the moment she got here,” Masanet said.

And O’Grady supplemented that with a sixth-place finish at the OVC Championships and a First Team All-OVC selection. This caps a career for O’Grady who was the OVC Freshman of the Year in 2006.

Masanet said he’ll be looking for leadership from other runners during the indoor and outdoor track season in preparation for next season.

On the men’s side, both Masanet and runners acknowledged the team was inconsistent when it came from practice to the actual race.

The men’s team was able to post its best finish at conference with a second-place showing, but red-shirt sophomore Brad LaRocque said they didn’t run to their best ability.

“We couldn’t click out there for some reason,” LaRocque said. “I don’t know what happened. We just couldn’t get it together.”

The Panthers still managed to finish second at the OVC Championships, their best finish since 2005.

“We need consistency at a high level,” Masanet said. “We need consistent, strong races.”

The men’s team had a revolving door at the No. 1 runner position including LaRocque, senior Aaron Iaun and sophomore Matt Feldhake. Senior David Holm also had the chance to be the team’s No. 1 runner.

The men’s team has a strong pack and had noticed this in practice every day this season. Masanet said the problem is the men’s team race plan didn’t unfold during meets, at least, in the past three meets.

“We worked really well in practices and when it came to races, some people showed up and some people didn’t,” LaRocque said. “We all couldn’t click at once.”

The Panthers will count on LaRocque and Feldhake to lead the team for next season. LaRocque, who battled back from injuries, was the top runner at the NCAA Midwest Regional and the Evansville Invitational. Feldhake earned Second-Team All-OVC honors at the OVC Championships.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].