It’s deja vu all over again for the Stanford cross country teams. With every female runner returning and all but one male back on the Farm, the Cardinal is poised to defend its women’s national title and build from the men’s sixth-place finish in the 2005 season.

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Sophomores John McGuire and Garrett Heath will hit the path this season for the Cardinal. The men’s team finished sixth at the NCAAs last year, while the women’s squad took home the National Championship. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/6155
Andrew Peterman

Sophomores John McGuire and Garrett Heath will hit the path this season for the Cardinal. The men’s team finished sixth at the NCAAs last year, while the women’s squad took home the National Championship.

The Stanford women took last year’s team title, the second in three years, behind the All-American performances of redshirt juniors Arianna Lambie and Teresa McWalters and seniors Katy and Amanda Trotter. Lambie, last year’s Pac-10 Cross Country Athlete of the Year, finished eighth in the NCAA meet last year to lead the squad to victory. With this dynamic foursome, joined by All-American junior Lauren Centrowitz and redshirt sophomore Lindsay Flacks and a deep and talented roster of returners and new recruits, Stanford claimed the top spot in the preseason national poll ahead of 2005 runner-up Colorado.

If all, or even most, of the Cardinal stay healthy, the team may just bring home its third title in four years at November’s NCAA meet.

On the men’s side, Stanford returns every member but one of last year’s sixth-place team. The Cardinal, ranked fourth in the preseason poll, will look to redshirt junior Neftalem Araia, last year’s 11th finisher at the NCAA meet, to lead the way.

The 2005 team was relatively young, having lost three top runners from the previous year, but this year’s squad is older and more experienced with a core of veteran runners and a pair of talented recruits looking to improve on last year’s performance. Four seniors, Jacob Gomez, Brett Gotcher, Jonathan Pierce and Rolf Steier, return to cross country after a successful track season in which each picked up an All-American honor.

The Cardinal will be on the track this weekend at the Stanford Invitational, one of the nation’s largest meets which features high school and collegiate athletes from around the country. Competition will pick up in October with the Pac-10 Championships, where the Cardinal is defending champion in both the women’s and men’s races, followed by the NCAA West Regional where Lambie will seek to defend her individual crown as well as Stanford’s team title.