Rarely do teams nationally ranked 11th in the preseason polls go into their season with an underdog mentality. Yet that’s exactly the mindset the women’s cross country team has developed as the young squad travels to the Harry Groves Invitational at Penn State this weekend for their first meet of the year.

And just where did that mentality come from? It starts from coming off a disappointing 21st-place finish at the NCAA National Championships a year ago. It helps when you return to arguably the best conference and region in the country where the reining champion Villanova Wildcats overshadow the rest of the field. Add to all that an overwhelmingly young team with just one graduate student and one senior, and it starts to make more sense why the team that’s ranked 11th in the country still thinks of themselves as an underdog.

“Nothing’s a given-we’ve got something to prove all the time, we’ve got a lot that we’re up against,” Assistant Coach Chris Milteberg said. “[The team] likes it that way – being able to go and really try to surprise people, doing things our way. Us against the world in a lot of ways.”

While the the Hoyas may look at themselves as underdogs for this upcoming season, five-time All-American junior Emily Infeld leads a team deep with young talent. Infeld, who had a breakout cross country campaign in 2009, finished eighth at last year’s national championships (the second highest women’s finish in school history) and provides the Hoyas with a consistently low score week in and week out.

Having redshirted the outdoor track season last spring to further concentrate on a higher level of training, Infeld comes into the season poised to run even better than that historic 2009 campaign.

“Coming off what she did is tough but I think if anybody can come back that really handles what goes with that it’s certaintly her,” Miltenberg said. “Her sophomore year was the most I’ve ever seen anybody grow up as an athlete and a person in one year.”

The Hoyas will get the rest of their veteran leadership from redshirt senior Renee Tomlin, who after redshirting last fall with a stress facture, makes her first return to the cross country course since 2008. Over those past two years she has proven herself to be one of the best middle distance runners in the country on the track and could be a big help for the Blue and Gray this fall. Junior Katie McCafferty, who has dealt with a number of injuries and health issues over the past year and a half, looks to finally be in good shape and could be another boost for the Hoyas.

Perhaps the most intriguing prospects are in the class of 2013 where sophomores Emily Jones, Rachel Schneider and Kirsten Kasper return, having now a full year’s worth of experience. The trio ran consistently solid for an injury riddled team a year ago, yet struggled in the big meets at the end of the season.

Schneider, who put together a great freshman campaign that recently ended in competing at the World Junior Championships, looks poised to contribute more to the team this year.

“I think she’s ready to make a big jump forward; one, because she’s a lot physically stronger, but then two, she’s confident now – she gets that she’s good at this level,” Miltenberg said.

uch of the same applies for Jones and Kasper, who have matured a lot over the past year and should be consistent performers week in and week out for the Hoyas.

Rounding out the team are freshmen Madeline Chambers and Joanna Stevens, who headline the class of 2014 as they finshed eighth and ninth, respectively, at last year’s high school Footlocker Cross Country Championships. The Hoyas are looking for both Stevens and Chambers to step right in and contribute, much like Infeld, McCafferty and Jones did their freshmen years.

“When you get athletes of that caliber, you hope they are going to contribute right away and that’s exciting,” Miltenberg said. “That’s why we get people at their level because they get here and are part of something big right away.”

At Penn State this coming weekend, the women will get a look at the course that will also be used for the Mid-Atlantic regionals later on in the fall. Look for the women to run nearly a full squad, with only Infeld and Stevens being held out due to racing track late into the summer.

On the men’s side – despite coming into the season ranked 16th nationally – there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the upcoming season. The team brings back only two of the seven runners that competed at the NCAA national championships last fall, both of which are currently overcoming summer injuries.

Redshirt junior Mark Dennin, who was a key contributor throughout last season, is recovering from surgery in June and will be out for most, if not all, of the season. The other returnee, redshirt senior James Grimes is coming back from an iliotibial band injury over the summer and just had his first real workout this week.

Admist these injuries, the Hoyas will look to seniors Alex Bean and Ayalew Taye to lead the youngest team Georgetown has had in years. Bean, primarily a middle distance runner, will be expected to contribute in cross country for the first time this coming fall. Taye, who’s had an up-and-down career at Georgetown, still has the potential to put it all together for a solid season. Fellow senior T.C. Lumbar could be a strong contributor as well.

However, as with the women, perhaps the most potential comes from the team’s youth. Andrew Springer, who had the country’s fastest high school mile two years ago, leads a strong group of redshirt sophomores that includes Dylan Sorensen and Bobby Peavey. Ben Furcht is also a talent in that group, but after coming down with mono late this summer, it’s unclear whether or not he’ll race this fall.

“We’re going to be dependent upon those guys,” Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Director Pat Henner said. “They’re definitely going to have to be ready to play a really important role for us this year.”

Finally, the Hoyas will look to freshman Tyler Anyan for help as well this season.While Anyan was one of the top high school distance runners in the country last year, he has an opportunity that few other Georgetown freshmen have had in past years, in terms of the team’s past depth and current inexperience.

At the very least, the men will have a chance early on to compete, going to Harry Groves, Lehigh’s Paul Short Invitational and most importantly, pre-nationals in Terre Haute, Ind. It’s a completely revamped regular season schedule that puts more emphasis on getting the young runners more racing experience.

“We’ve got to live a lot more in the present,” Henner said. “With this group it’s just real important that we take each piece of the season as it comes. I really want to just break it down and make sure we’re not overlooking races.”