The University of North Texas Opener is becoming an annual tradition for the men’s and women’s cross country teams.In addition to competing in the meet every year, another tradition has emerged: a new coach each of the past three seasons. This year’s new recruit to the team is head coach Shawn Winget.

He replaced Eric Heins as head coach and has been working with the team for about three weeks.

Since his arrival, he has begun to mold the team for the 2007 season. Weekly mileage during practices ranges from 30 to 80 miles depending on the runner, Winget said.

A pair of the veteran runners expected to lead the men’s team are sophomore Festus Kigen and senior Matt Manly. Kigen was scratched from the UNT Opener last year, and Manly strode to a ninth place finish with a time of 20:54.9 in the four-mile race.

“I’m looking at Festus to be in the top two,” Winget said. “He has been running well lately – and Matt I want in the top 10,” Winget said.

Kigen is coming off of a second place finish in the Baylor Twilight Invite and the men’s team as a whole took sixth place out of eight teams at the meet.

The women’s team is led by a healthy senior Halie Bullin and a powerful sophomore duo in Dani Selner and Carlene Mayfield. Mayfield and Selner were the consistent second and third runners for the team behind now-graduated Calandra Stewart last season.

“They are looking really good,” Winget said. “There were some injuries and such this summer, but they are coming along well. And Carlene is getting healthy.”

Although the race is Saturday, the team is not curtailing any training intensity before the race, Winget said.

“We’ll train through the competitions to get ready for the last half of the season when we cut back before conference and regionals,” Winget said.