Photo by: Kaya Wagner 2026
Season Outlook: 'Ville changes training with postseason in mind
9/2/2026 1:33:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – Despite a third consecutive finish in the top half of the PSAC and two top 20 finishers, Millersville cross country head coach Andy Young wasn't altogether satisfied with the conclusion of the 2025 season. His strategy, across 20 seasons, has always been to have his athletes at peak performance for the PSAC and NCAA Atlantic Regional championship meets. After feeling like just missing the mark, Young decided it was time for a change.
The Marauders return a strong group of veteran runners, including All-PSAC performers Bri Pollock and Kira Chebishev, 13 upperclassmen and 20 returners. But there has been no complacency or routine in their training as Young adopted and implemented The Norwegian Method. Norway is a nation of fewer than 6 million people but has recently begun dominating endurance competitions at the Olympic and world championship levels in a variety of sports. In this training plan, athletes run more volume but still manage to recover better. Runners run hard, hitting their "threshold" twice in a day, a couple times a week but spend the remainder of the week running recovery. The idea is that athletes run at their peak and generate more miles but the extra focus on recovery prevents wear on the body.
"You work hard at recovering in the days in between, and we haven't always in the past been good at that," said Young. "The hope is that the runners keep themselves under control during recovery, and then when we go twice in a day, it will pay some dividends down the line."
The team has taken to the new method. It is a roster that Young says trained as hard over the summer as any in recent memory, returning to campus in the preseason in excellent shape.
"We are really working on recovery," said Young. "What I took away from last season was that we needed to make some changes. We didn't quite hit it right last year at the end. We had some injuries, and we didn't quite perform the way I was hoping we would. We're mixing it up slightly, but it's not going to be shocking for them. They were excited because they read about the training for themselves. A lot of them are track nerds like me."
With early returns positive, the hope is that the team is fresh and primed on Nov. 7 for the PSAC Championships and the NCAA events to follow. Young believes the team is better than the eighth-place finish it had last year and the subsequent eighth place standing it received in the 2026 PSAC Preseason Poll.
"This team is going to be pretty strong," said Young. "The thing is, in our conference, in our region, everyone else has upped their game. Looking at recruiting and everything, everyone's gotten stronger. So now it is just a matter of who's going to perform best on the day."
Young believes there are four runners in the lineup capable of top 20, All-PSAC finishes. Millersville last had three crack the top 20 in 1995 and haven't placed four since 1990. It's a rare achievement that would put Millersville easily in the top four, where it hasn't finished since 2001. That quartet includes Pollock, who finished 16th in 2025 and 20th in 2024, Chebishev, who placed 18th as a freshman, Marissa Mounce, who missed last season with an injury, and Bella Ruefle, who came on strong at the end of last season and continued to build through track season.
Pollock has a shot at joining some elite company with a third All-PSAC finish, and she has her sights set on joining the likes of former teammate Morgan Janiuk, Elicia Anderson and Priscilla Jennings as national qualifiers under the guidance of Young. Pollock produced strong track and field seasons as well, placing 10th in the conference in the indoor 3,000 meters, fifth in the indoor mile, fourth in the outdoor 1,500 and 10th in the 5,000.
"She trains really hard, and she did a really good job again this summer," said Young. "She's as fit as she's ever been, definitely fitter than last year. A key component for her has been a mindset change where she seems more chill about everything right now in regards to racing, which is nice to see. I don't want to tell her I expect big things, but I think she is going to go out and run as well as she can. She ran with Morgan a couple of years ago, and that was helpful for her to see the level of training it takes to get to NCAA's, and that might be in the back of her head too."
It will take a climb up the standings for Pollock to reach the NCAA Championships. She finished 32 last year and would need to land in the top five as an individual. It's been done. Janiuk went from 27th in the region in 2023 to second in 2024.
"This past track season she could run with just about anybody in the conference, and that's definitely given her some confidence going into cross country season," said Young. "We've seen that with runners like Anderson and Jennings in the past where they have a really strong track season and then go bonkers in the next cross country season. I think it is all about confidence."
Chebishev broke onto the scene as a freshman and was Millersville's top runner at the NCAA regional, placing 29th. The fast start to her collegiate career tapered off in track as the grind of her first collegiate season caught up to her. She ran well at Millersville's 3K Alumni Run last Friday, finishing just behind Pollock.
"I think the track season was frustrating for her," said Young. "She really went at it training this summer, and she's ready to go. She's able to run with Bri, which is really nice and gives them training partners every day. I would expect very similar results from her this year, although she's a year older, maybe a little more understanding of the college schedule, and that's going to help her."
Ruefle ran just three cross country meets before placing 74th at the PSAC Championships and 84th at the regional. She only continued to improve throughout the year, finishing 10th in the mile at the PSAC Indoor Championships, 17th in the 1,500 and 13th in the steeplechase at the outdoor championships. At the alumni run, she trailed just behind Chebishev in third.
"Bella put in so much work last spring," said Young. "She didn't have her best PSAC race, but she ran really well overall last spring and put in a ton of work this summer. She's right there at the top of the team. I think she's really ready to have a super season."
Two years ago, Mounce was one of the top three runners on the team. She placed 42nd at the 2024 conference meet, but a preseason injury derailed most of her 2025-26 cross country and track seasons.
"Marissa is definitely in shape again, and she has put herself where she was last year before she was injured," said Young. "I totally expect her to take a leap this year as far as performance."
Senior Emma Armstrong, who Young says had an outstanding summer and is motivated, and senior Abby Bond, building on an outdoor season where she finished 18th at the PSAC Championships in the steeplechase, could be in that postseason top seven. At the 3K alumni race, junior Leanne Hodgson ran fifth, finishing three seconds behind Mounce, followed by Ashley Main, Armstrong and a trio of freshmen—Delaney Schoeneberger, Grace DiBricida and Keira Reider.
It isn't uncommon for freshmen to make an impact for Young's team, and while Young likes the group's potential, there are so many variables in making the transition to collegiate cross country that is impossible to predict their immediate success.
"There are some runners who might make a difference for us, but we just don't know yet," said Young. "It's like that in every sport—adjusting to the campus, classes, where they are living, the food, the training. We tell all of them it will take them three to five months before they fully adjust."
Saturday's Dutchmen Invitational at Lebanon Valley College begins the slow build toward the postseason.
The Marauders return a strong group of veteran runners, including All-PSAC performers Bri Pollock and Kira Chebishev, 13 upperclassmen and 20 returners. But there has been no complacency or routine in their training as Young adopted and implemented The Norwegian Method. Norway is a nation of fewer than 6 million people but has recently begun dominating endurance competitions at the Olympic and world championship levels in a variety of sports. In this training plan, athletes run more volume but still manage to recover better. Runners run hard, hitting their "threshold" twice in a day, a couple times a week but spend the remainder of the week running recovery. The idea is that athletes run at their peak and generate more miles but the extra focus on recovery prevents wear on the body.
"You work hard at recovering in the days in between, and we haven't always in the past been good at that," said Young. "The hope is that the runners keep themselves under control during recovery, and then when we go twice in a day, it will pay some dividends down the line."
The team has taken to the new method. It is a roster that Young says trained as hard over the summer as any in recent memory, returning to campus in the preseason in excellent shape.
"We are really working on recovery," said Young. "What I took away from last season was that we needed to make some changes. We didn't quite hit it right last year at the end. We had some injuries, and we didn't quite perform the way I was hoping we would. We're mixing it up slightly, but it's not going to be shocking for them. They were excited because they read about the training for themselves. A lot of them are track nerds like me."
With early returns positive, the hope is that the team is fresh and primed on Nov. 7 for the PSAC Championships and the NCAA events to follow. Young believes the team is better than the eighth-place finish it had last year and the subsequent eighth place standing it received in the 2026 PSAC Preseason Poll.
"This team is going to be pretty strong," said Young. "The thing is, in our conference, in our region, everyone else has upped their game. Looking at recruiting and everything, everyone's gotten stronger. So now it is just a matter of who's going to perform best on the day."
Young believes there are four runners in the lineup capable of top 20, All-PSAC finishes. Millersville last had three crack the top 20 in 1995 and haven't placed four since 1990. It's a rare achievement that would put Millersville easily in the top four, where it hasn't finished since 2001. That quartet includes Pollock, who finished 16th in 2025 and 20th in 2024, Chebishev, who placed 18th as a freshman, Marissa Mounce, who missed last season with an injury, and Bella Ruefle, who came on strong at the end of last season and continued to build through track season.
Pollock has a shot at joining some elite company with a third All-PSAC finish, and she has her sights set on joining the likes of former teammate Morgan Janiuk, Elicia Anderson and Priscilla Jennings as national qualifiers under the guidance of Young. Pollock produced strong track and field seasons as well, placing 10th in the conference in the indoor 3,000 meters, fifth in the indoor mile, fourth in the outdoor 1,500 and 10th in the 5,000.
"She trains really hard, and she did a really good job again this summer," said Young. "She's as fit as she's ever been, definitely fitter than last year. A key component for her has been a mindset change where she seems more chill about everything right now in regards to racing, which is nice to see. I don't want to tell her I expect big things, but I think she is going to go out and run as well as she can. She ran with Morgan a couple of years ago, and that was helpful for her to see the level of training it takes to get to NCAA's, and that might be in the back of her head too."
It will take a climb up the standings for Pollock to reach the NCAA Championships. She finished 32 last year and would need to land in the top five as an individual. It's been done. Janiuk went from 27th in the region in 2023 to second in 2024.
"This past track season she could run with just about anybody in the conference, and that's definitely given her some confidence going into cross country season," said Young. "We've seen that with runners like Anderson and Jennings in the past where they have a really strong track season and then go bonkers in the next cross country season. I think it is all about confidence."
Chebishev broke onto the scene as a freshman and was Millersville's top runner at the NCAA regional, placing 29th. The fast start to her collegiate career tapered off in track as the grind of her first collegiate season caught up to her. She ran well at Millersville's 3K Alumni Run last Friday, finishing just behind Pollock.
"I think the track season was frustrating for her," said Young. "She really went at it training this summer, and she's ready to go. She's able to run with Bri, which is really nice and gives them training partners every day. I would expect very similar results from her this year, although she's a year older, maybe a little more understanding of the college schedule, and that's going to help her."
Ruefle ran just three cross country meets before placing 74th at the PSAC Championships and 84th at the regional. She only continued to improve throughout the year, finishing 10th in the mile at the PSAC Indoor Championships, 17th in the 1,500 and 13th in the steeplechase at the outdoor championships. At the alumni run, she trailed just behind Chebishev in third.
"Bella put in so much work last spring," said Young. "She didn't have her best PSAC race, but she ran really well overall last spring and put in a ton of work this summer. She's right there at the top of the team. I think she's really ready to have a super season."
Two years ago, Mounce was one of the top three runners on the team. She placed 42nd at the 2024 conference meet, but a preseason injury derailed most of her 2025-26 cross country and track seasons.
"Marissa is definitely in shape again, and she has put herself where she was last year before she was injured," said Young. "I totally expect her to take a leap this year as far as performance."
Senior Emma Armstrong, who Young says had an outstanding summer and is motivated, and senior Abby Bond, building on an outdoor season where she finished 18th at the PSAC Championships in the steeplechase, could be in that postseason top seven. At the 3K alumni race, junior Leanne Hodgson ran fifth, finishing three seconds behind Mounce, followed by Ashley Main, Armstrong and a trio of freshmen—Delaney Schoeneberger, Grace DiBricida and Keira Reider.
It isn't uncommon for freshmen to make an impact for Young's team, and while Young likes the group's potential, there are so many variables in making the transition to collegiate cross country that is impossible to predict their immediate success.
"There are some runners who might make a difference for us, but we just don't know yet," said Young. "It's like that in every sport—adjusting to the campus, classes, where they are living, the food, the training. We tell all of them it will take them three to five months before they fully adjust."
Saturday's Dutchmen Invitational at Lebanon Valley College begins the slow build toward the postseason.
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
Thursday, November 07
Saturday, August 31
Saturday, November 05
Saturday, September 03
