GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen College men's cross country team finished 20th at the NAIA national meet in 2019 and returns most of that lineup. While the women did not finish their season on the nation's biggest stage, they bring back the top five runners from their conference meet. In both cases, the Maple Leafs finished their season looking forward to 2020.

Of course, the offseason has been far from normal. Less than a week after some of the same Maple Leafs finished their indoor track seasons at the NAIA national meet in South Dakota, the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the sports calendar and Goshen has not run since.

When the starting gun sounds tonight at Indiana Wesleyan University's Twilight Invitational, it will have been 294 days since Goshen's last cross country meet and 188 days since indoor nationals. Head coach Rustin Nyce finds a key element to be looking forward rather than backward.

"I'm excited to have a season!," Nyce said. "On both the women's and the men's team, we have a large number of new teammates. I've been really pleased by how our teammates have worked together and I am looking forward to watching them compete together. We have a great mix of veteran leadership and enthusiastic newcomers.

Three of Goshen's seven national finishers are back on the men's roster to go with nine other returners and six newcomers. On the women's side, the roster numbers 14 including six frosh and an incoming transfer.

"The men's team wants to improve over their finish at nationals last year. We have a great core back and some excited new guys that will allow that to happen," Nyce said. "The women finished last in conference last year, so we need to get a lot better. We had a great influx of young talent. That talent, combined with their work ethic, will produce strong growth."

The two seniors on the Maple Leaf women's team are Ariana Perez Diener, a Goshen product who has run in 10 career meets, and Makayla Collier, a graduate of Cascade High School who led the team twice last season after spending her first two years on campus with the basketball team.

Four of the six freshmen on the women's team hail from Goshen High School in Celeste Arroyo, Sarai Flores Ramirez, Sheila Herrera and Yadira Sanchez. Sanchez was a two-time team MVP for the RedHawks. A fifth, Summer Cooper, is not from Goshen per se, but comes from the adjacent Concord school district where she was four-time team MVP.

The sixth college newcomer is Annika Fisher, who set a school record and finished in the top two in the state in five events at Buffalo Gap High School in Virginia. Sophomore transfer Hannah Kurtz can claim to be local and from Virginia: she went to Goshen High School, but comes to GC from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

On the men's side, senior Salvador Escamilla is GC's top returning national finisher, taking 139th place in 26:42.0. Junior Liam Elias, who finished 206th, finished ahead of Escamilla twice last year and was fourth on the team at nationals, while Solomon Wiebe-Powell rounded out the national crew.

Five freshmen dot the men's roster: Simon Hertzler Gascho and Levi Graber come from Goshen, Tanner Pinks and Emanuel Villanueva hail from Ohio and Nelson Kemboi is from Kenya. Sophomores Diego Torres makes the transition from the tennis team and Edwin Kimutai transfers in.

On one front, the simplest way to define success will be where the Maple Leafs finish, be it Nov. 6 in the conference meet at Indiana Wesleyan or April 9 in the rescheduled national meet at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. But on another, Nyce sees avenues for improvement in the classroom and the community as well.

"We will define success by the development of our athletes," he said. "They are outstanding in the classroom and that is one way to define success. They are also leaders and positive influences on campus and that, to me, is another definition of success. Finally, we will work to have each athlete run faster than they did the year before."

"The team has already made me as proud as possible by showing up and being so willing and eager to do the hard work," Nyce contined. "Our sport, like all others, looks so different than it has before. Instead of having a negative attitude the team and eagerly embraced new protocol, took preventative measures to ensure their health and the health of others, and have worked hard to find what they can do to continue to compete. By coming on campus, and working together, I am already immensely proud of our team. I am certain that the courage the athletes have already displayed will lead to success however we choose to define it."

After its season opener, Goshen will be idle for two weeks before the Louisville Sports Commission Classic at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park on October 3. The next weekend sees the team split, with some runners visiting Bethel on Oct. 9 and others traveling to pre-nationals in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 10. With the usual NAIA Great Lakes Invitational off the board this season, the team will visit Taylor's Midwest Invitational in that Oct. 24 slot before the conference meet.

Stay tuned to GoLeafs.net and follow the Maple Leafs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest developments throughout the 2020-21 season.