The success of the women’s cross country team this season is all about the “Ms.”

Juniors Meredith McKean and Jenny Mockler, and senior Krysta Metz said they hope to provide the leadership that departed with Lindsey Nye last season.

“Anytime you lose a runner with that leadership and encouragement for teammates during workouts, you’re going to have some turnover,” coach Dick Lee said of Nye.

“There will be a group who will assume leadership roles [this season]. It will float between a few of them – whoever’s having the better day.”

Lee said he is counting on the upperclassmen to share their experience with the team’s seven freshmen.

“They’ll provide good leadership, ” he said.

“They bring a lot of enthusiasm and energy.”

Throw in sophomores Mackenzie Madison and Madeline Peck to the returnee mix, and that supplies five “Ms” to work with.

Lee said the healthy returnees are better conditioned now than they were at the beginning of last season.

“Definitely better overall shape,” he said.

“But until we race, it’s hard to tell.”

Tweaking her summer training regimen has made a difference for McKean.

“I tried to train smarter,” she said. “Last summer, I got burned out by midseason. I had some health issues and only did three races.

“I’m looking forward to a complete season. Krysta and I tried to match training programs, so hopefully our legs will be ready to go and we can keep that through November.”

Metz said this summer’s training was “way more hardcore” than previous summers.

“I took about three weeks off after outdoor track and hit it hard since then,” she said.

“People in Ames saw me everywhere. I ran anywhere from 45 to 60 miles per week on average. Hopefully all that hard work will pay off.”

While McKean and Metz are doing well, health issues may set a few runners back early on.

Mockler is suffering from some nagging calf injuries, and Madison is battling fatigue. Mockler’s case is week-to-week, while Madison will know more about her condition in the next couple of days.

With health as a possible reason to redshirt a few athletes later in the season, Lee said he is looking for a few freshmen to fill in the rest of the spots behind the three upperclassmen.

Lisa Koll from Fort Dodge was one of the top 4A runners in the state last year and has looked very good so far, he said.

Keira Vogel of England is just getting healthy and Lee said he expects to see improvement as the season progresses.

Erin Penticoff and Jessi Will are two freshmen who are also in position to help out this season, he said.

McKean and Metz said they like what they’ve seen out of the freshmen so far.

“They’re a talented group that has the potential to step in and help out this year,” McKean said.

But with so much inexperience on the team, Lee said there may be some growing pains.

“We’ve got the type of team that we may not look as good early on as we do later in the season,” he said.

“We’re going to build this up gradually.”

Redshirt decisions will be made at the end of September or early October.

“We may have several runners competing unattached right away,” Lee said. “It’s better to have them [healthy] in mid-October than in September.”