As a race begins and the echo of a gun and the roar of a crowd fade, Lauren Tehan thinks of a song.
‘Even though we stand alone, we stand together,’ the freshman says, recalling an old high school rallying cry.
Fittingly, Tehan, who has already been named MAAC Runner of the Week twice, has not stood alone as the only freshman star on the women’s cross country team, which has enjoyed tremendous success at the outset of the season.
Kristen Golen ’12 is a fellow standout and arguably Tehan’s staunchest competitor. However, the two insist that a flourishing friendship hides beneath the surface.
We are best friends,’ Tehan said. ‘We have dinner together every night.
‘Besides, everyone on this team is really good at leaving a race on the course,’ Tehan added.
Both Tehan and Golen came to Fairfield knowing that expectations were high.
The Stags struggled mightily last season, finishing 42nd of 44 teams at the 2007 New England Championships. The Stags struggled for top finishers in invitational meets in comparison with other MAAC and New England teams.
‘We knew freshman would have to rise above,’ Golen recalls.
Expectations, though, are nothing new to these rookies, both of whom came from high schools with extensive cross country backgrounds.
Golen graduated from Great Valley High School in Pennsylvania, one of the state’s top programs.
Tehan, on the other hand, was one of 150 student-athletes on the cross country team at Jesuit High School in Portland, Oreg.
Knowing full well of their parallel backgrounds, the two became an integral part of Head Coach John Sagnelli’s efforts to remodel a flailing cross country program.
‘Coach Sagnelli swayed us in a way,’ Golen said. ‘He showed from the start [of recruiting] that he cared about the whole person, not just the runner.’
‘I’m from Oregon, so it was a chaotic transition to say the least,’ Tehan recalls. ‘Coach Sagnelli came and picked up my bags for me as soon as I got here.’
Tehan added that Sagnelli has emphasized camaraderie from the outset of the season, a theme that the team has adopted.
‘All the girls know how to work here. They have been great,’ Tehan said. ‘It’s like we found a little mini-family.’
The striking similarities between the two, though, have extended from reminiscences to results.
Not only has either Golen or Tehan finished as the Stags’ leading runner in each of the team’s first five meets of the season, but the two have also finished 1-2 in three of those five meets.
Tehan began the year as the Stags’ leading runner in the team’s first three meets, including a finish of 17th overall at the Fairfield Invitational on campus.
Lately, though, it has been’ Golen who has excelled as the Stags’ strongest runner.
Following a ninth overall finish at the Fr. Leeber Invitational on Sept. 27, Golen was again Fairfield’s top finisher at this past weekend’s New England Championship in Boston, Mass., finishing 117th in a field of 299 with a time of 19:38.00.
Tehan also placed strongly in the race, finishing 158th with a time of 20:06.00.
Spurred by Golen and Tehan’s efforts, Fairfield placed 30 out of 45 teams; a season ago, the team finished 42nd of 44 teams.
‘It’s exciting to think about,’ Tehan said. ‘Last year we would’ve gotten 2nd to last, and this year we are disappointed with 30th.’
‘It says a lot about how far this team has come,’ Golen said.
Regardless of their role in the women’s team’s resurgence, both freshman are quick to note that’ cross country is a team sport.
‘It’s a lot like basketball,’ Tehan said. ‘If one player is out of sync, the whole team struggles. If one of us doesn’t do well, it affects the whole team.’
With four meets remaining in the season, both Tehan and Golen gush about the possibilities that lie ahead.
‘The biggest thing we are learning is confidence,’ Golen said. ‘We have to remember we are facing other team’s best, senior runners.’
‘After all, we’re just freshmen,’ Golen said.
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