Jacob Zanolla
Staff Writer
The 2025 SSC Preseason Coaches Poll was recently released, listing FSC as the team to beat. After back-to-back years at the top, coaches around the conference believe they have what it takes to repeat again. FSC received 81 points in the voting, along with nine first-place votes.
Having high expectations is great, but the team isn’t putting much stock in these polls.
The Moccasins earned 27 team points in 2024, capturing the team’s 19th SSC championship. Christian Giller was named the 2024 Sunshine State Conference Men’s Runner of the Year, as his teammate Chris Colavita finished in second place.
Karl van Gelder, a senior at FSC and member of the Men’s Cross Country team, says that his team is coming back more determined than ever.
“Last year, we had a team that was really ready to run it back. In my sophomore year, we won the conference and made it to Nationals,” van Gelder said. “Junior year didn’t end how we wanted when we fell short and didn’t make Nationals, but I think we’re carrying a lot of guys over from that team that are hungry and looking to show that we mean business.”
Cross Country is a mentally taxing sport, whether high expectations are present or not. It can be hard enough to run a short distance in track, so doing it for such a prolonged distance brings on several more challenges.
“You don’t decide to do cross country just to feel good the whole time. It’s not a sport where you go to have a good time, but it is one where you go to compete. The biggest thing you gotta do while you’re there is go out and compete, while not letting things get in the way. Something my high school coach would always say to us is, ‘You have to burn the ship. Once stuff starts going awry, you can either sink or you can burn the ship and storm the beach. I think this team is full of a bunch of guys who are willing to burn that ship and are really willing to go out there and give whatever they have. If they don’t have enough, they’ll find it somewhere else.”
Having several members of the recent Championship teams gives FSC veteran experience, with plenty of runners who know what it takes to win. Four of FSC’s six finishers from the 2024 SSC Championship are returning for another season, including the previously mentioned Giller and Colavita. Head coach Matt Levassiur has also added eight new athletes who will give the team some new faces as they prepare to begin their season on September 6th in the Swan City Invitational at Holloway Park.
“The best way to describe every single guy on the team is ‘a dog.’ We come in and have an expectation that we’re gonna give everything we can,” said van Gelder. “Expectations for us aren’t really a thing we look at. We expect to be great, and we approach every day to be great.”
The Mocs will be in action tonight in Tallahassee to compete in the HOKA nights of thunder cross country fest. For updates, visit fscmocs.com.
