The UNC Cross-Country team starts their season Sept. 13 in Chapel Hill at the UNC Challenge. The women's team is coming off a 21st place finish at the NCAA Championships highlighted by Shalane Flanagan winning the first national championship in team history.

This season the team welcomes back sophomore Carol Henry, who missed last season due to injury. Flanagan returns for her senior season as well. Other talented runners on the team include junior Alice Schmidt and sophomore Jessica Perry. The men's team is led by junior Brian McGovern, who finished 13th at 2002's ACC Championships. The following is an interview with cross-country coach Michael Whittlesey with his thoughts on the upcoming season.

Q: How is the men's team looking so far in practice and how is their conditioning?

A: The men's team looks great. I'm real excited, you know we were very, very young last year. Right now, this year's team will only lose one member to graduation, so we are still going to be relatively young. They have matured a lot in the past year. The volume of work and the attitude has increased tremendously. They are very excited about what they can do, and I am very excited about the effort that they have put in already and the talent that they have.

Q: What are the overall team goals?

A: We want to move up to top three in the ACC. We think that's a real legitimate shot. Our main focus is the ACC Championships. We just want to execute as well as we can on that day. If we do and they race the best they can that day, I will be happy.

Q: What needs to be done for the women to improve on last year's season?

A: We didn't have enough experience on the women's squad that went to nationals to really know how to race at Nationals. Only three girls had run there previously. The NCAA Championships is an extremely difficult race to run the first time. But we bring back Carol Henry and we bring back all but one from last year that ran at Nationals. The addition of Carol, addition of two really good freshmen and Kristen Stroupe coming back in really adds an awful lot of depth to our team. It adds a lot of confidence and talent.

Q: What are some of the individual goals?

A: Shalane's main goal, to be honest, is for the team to do really well. She knows she has to take care of business personally and she has a title that she wants to try and defend. But our main goal is the team. That was said to me right after last year's NCAA Championship. It's something she celebrated, but turned around right afterwards and said `next year is the team.' She put off the chance to go to the world championships this year because she wanted to focus on cross-country and focus on the team, which is a huge sacrifice, the chance to represent the United States. That's how much she cares about this program. Brian McGovern goals are the same thing. He wants to see the men's team have a very successful season. He has aspirations to make the NCAA's as either an individual or with other people as well. Those are his main goals this year.

Q: How has the success of Shalane Flanagan helped the program?

A: We've had a pretty solid women's team for about five years I think. Shalane's success at nationals already solidifies what we have been doing. Obviously it happened in a year where we didn't have our best finish at the NCAA's, but that wasn't her issue, or the team issue, it goes back to a freak injury and we had lost a couple key people the year before. But it does give us that person we can count on, meet-in and meet-out to vie for a top two spot. It gives everybody else on the team someone they can judge themselves with. If they run close to Shalane then they know that they're going to have a great season. I think she just legitimizes the program as a whole.

Q: Could it help with recruiting?

A: It has always helped with recruiting. It wasn't just last year with her winning. Shalane coming here in the first place legitimizes what the program is about. She was a big-time recruit out of high school and it opened up more and more doors for people who wanted to come. I think it really solidifies us as one of the top five schools in the country.

Q: What events besides Nationals and the ACC Championships are you looking forward to?

A: The pre-nationals is a meet to judge and see where you are at and make adjustments. It gives us a chance to see what the course is going to be like and what we need to do a month later. The Great-American is a meet that is an early season test. Our first meet of the year is alumni meet. It is a great meet for our program because it brings back people from many years ago. It is just a great weekend to honor and celebrate cross-country from past years.