Fifth-year head coach Drew Ludtke hopes that the steady improvement his teams have shown over the past few seasons will continue this year for his Saints as the ladies try to move up another notch in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.

The Saints placed third among seven teams in the CCAC meet a year ago and placed Meghan Bannatz in her third straight NAIA Championship meet.

Bannatz hopes to make it four in a row as a senior as she leads a group that includes one other senior, four juniors, three sophomores and seven freshmen that comprises the 2000 Saints roster.

Bannatz just missed cracking the 20-minute barrier (20:00.09) in the national meet at Wisconsin-Parkside last November. She ran a 19:42 in the national meet as a freshman and posted a 20:02 time in the NAIA meet as a sophomore.

"Meghan is a quality runner and a very tough competitor," says Ludtke. "She has her sights set on qualifying for nationals for four years in a row and she will not allow herself to fall short of that goal."

Sarah Kielbasa is the only other senior competing for USF this season as senior twin sisters Jennifer and Jessica Horn will redshirt the 2009 cross country campaign and prepare for their senior track seasons this spring.

The four juniors include Brittany McAllister, the Saints' No. 2 runner and a fine middle distance runner on USF's track team. McAllister, whose best track events have been the 800 and 1500 meters, hopes that her improvement in the 1500 last spring will translate into better times at the five kilometer distance run in cross country.

"Brittany improved greatly at the longer distance during track last spring and that will help her with the 5K races in cross country," says Ludtke. "She is a fine athlete and works very hard and will see a lot of improvement in her times this fall."

The other juniors are Aprille Froelich, Danielle Menzynski and Lisa Stolzenbach who have all run for Ludtke since coming to USF two years ago.

Sophomore Courtney Madden will battle McAllister for the second spot behind Bannatz.

"Courtney and Brittany need to continue to improve and help push Meghan to improve her times this season," adds Ludtke. "We can score much better in the meets this fall if our number two and three runners can move up in the pack and I believe that Courtney and Brittany are very capable of that."

Gina Aloisio and Lainy Sekuloski are the other two sophomores on the Saints' roster and each of them will fight for spots in the Saints' top seven runners.

Freshmen Torin Mallonee, Renee Cholyway and Julia Borel-Donahue are among the top newcomers and all have the ability to run in the top six or seven slots on the team this fall.

The other freshmen include Jamie and Sarah Topp, Kari Pedziwiatr and Janelle Mosher. The Topps are two-thirds of a set of triplets that are competing for the Saints and Ludtke this fall. Their brother Mike is on the men's cross country and track teams.

"We certainly have the potential to improve this season and I like the direction that our program has taken," says Ludtke. "We only had three runners better the 18-minute mark in our first meet last fall and I expect to see eight or nine do that this season.

"We have a very good senior leading our team," continues Ludtke, "but it still is a very young team and one that will continue to get better with each year as we build the program into one that can compete in the NAIA on a national level."