GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Gettysburg College cross country teams each posted successful seasons in 2009. With plenty of top runners returning on both sides, expectations remain high for each squad under interim head coach Aubrey Shenk.

Both teams have been picked to finish fourth in the ultra-competitive Centennial Conference (CC), which includes five (two men's, three women's) nationally-ranked programs, in its preseason coaches poll. Each Bullet squad has also been ranked ninth in the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division III Mideast Region Preseason Poll.

The men's team returns four of its top seven runners from a year ago, when the Bullets finished fourth at the Centennial Conference Championships and eighth among 45 teams at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional. The women's squad also brings back four of its top seven after taking fourth at the Centennial Conference Championships and fifth out of 44 teams at the Mideast Regional, missing a national championship berth by just two places.

After finishing as the Bullets No. 1 runner in five of his seven races in 2009, Clay Reynolds returns for his senior year. Reynolds was an all-region performer last season after taking 33rd among 314 runners at the Mideast Regional. He also took 28th at the Centennial Conference Championship and ran a PR of 25:39 at the Paul Short Run. Reynolds is coming off an outstanding track & field season in which he set a school record and won the conference title in the indoor 800-meter run and provisionally qualified for nationals in the outdoor 800.

Seniors Thomas Daniels and Dan O'Neill and junior Brenden Repack also return after regularly finishing among the team's top-seven last season. Daniels had a breakthrough campaign in 2009, improving his PR by a minute-and-a-half (26:26) from a year earlier. One of the team's top-five runners in three races, he was the Bullets No. 2 harrier at the Centennial Conference Championships, where he finished 25th.

O'Neill was also a top-five runner three times in 2009, including the Mideast Regional, where he took third among the Bullets and 44th overall in a season-best 26:24. Like Daniels, Repack improved significantly last season, lowering his PR by over a minute (26:17).One of the team's top-five runners in six of his seven races, he was 36th at the Centennial Conference Championships and 55th at the Mideast Regional.

A number of additional runners will compete to fill out the team's top-five, including sophomore Tyler Keith, who has run extremely well in preseason workouts.

On the women's side, the Bullets face the challenge of replacing an extremely talented duo in Kerrin Epstein '10 and Sarah Fritz '10, the team's top-two runners last season. The pair earned a slew of all-conference and all-region honors during their careers while Epstein was a national qualifier in 2009.

Possibly filling in as the team's top harrier this season will be sophomore Christine Esposito, one of the Bullets top-five finishers in all eight of her 2009 races. She took 35th at the Centennial Conference Championships and 41st at the Mideast Regional while clocking a PR of 23:24 at the Paul Short Run.

Sophomore Kerry Campbell will likely join Esposito at the front of the pack after running well in her rookie campaign last season. One of Gettysburg's top-five in five of seven races, she took 57th at the Mideast Regional in a PR of 23:48 and was 16th at the Centennial championships, missing All-CC recognition by just two spots.

Also returning as two of the team's top-seven runners last season are junior Kyler Philbin and senior Casey Lumpkin. Philbin improved greatly in 2009, chopping three minutes off her PR (23:59), breaking the team's top-five on four occasions, and finishing 42nd at the CC meet. Lumpkin raced at both regionals and conferences and clocked a PR of 24:56 at the Paul Short Run.

Sophomore Yaa Addison and senior Beth Mounsey, who have run well early on, are among the returning Bullets who could also push for a spot among the team's top-five.

Gettysburg opens its season Sept. 4, when it competes against Dickinson College and host Franklin & Marshall College in the Little Three Meet.