Tito Medrano started his morning the way he does every morning before a race or practice – a bowl of Cheerios, a banana and some peanut butter.

By the time his day was done, however, Medrano realized just how important this basic routine truly was.

‘I finally have developed a plan that I always keep with eating the same things at the same times,’ said Medrano, a sophomore runner on the Syracuse cross country team. ‘Having this mentality to treat practice and meets the same, and approach them the same really helps me run hard.’

Medrano and his teammates are certainly running hard.

Two days after finishing in first place at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational on Saturday, the SU men’s cross country team went from being unranked and relatively unknown, to capturing its highest ranking in program history (No. 11) in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll. This is the squad’s highest regular-season ranking in program history.

The SU women earned the No. 15 ranking in the country after placing second in Wisconsin. Syracuse is now one of only five schools in the country that has both the men and women ranked in the top 15 in the national poll.

Medrano finished third overall for the men in Madison, followed by senior Brad Miller, sophomore Griff Graves and senior Dan Busby, who all finished in the meet’s top 10.

Though the Orange has enjoyed early success, finishing second and first, respectively, in the first two meets of the season, this one was different.

‘After knocking off the No. 4 and No. 10 teams in Wisconsin, I feel that we can beat any team in the country,’ Busby said. ‘These teams seemed impossible to beat, like way up there on the pedestal. I feel like we are up there now.’

The men knocked off No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 10 Georgetown, while also finishing in front of three other top 30 teams.

But don’t expect the men to bask in any kind of glory.

‘After workouts coach told us, ‘Guess what, we are ranked (No.) 11,” Medrano said. ‘I was like, ‘Oh, OK, cool,’ but in his next breath, coach made it clear that we need to move on because you are only as good as your next race.’

Though the high ranking may have surprised the rest of the nation, it was almost expected for the team and the coaches.

The last month of last season was plagued by injuries and sicknesses for the men’s squad. They knew they had the talent, but had to wait until now to show everyone else.

Fox’s constant nagging, telling his players to get their flu shots has helped the team remain healthy and finally reach its potential.

‘This is what we wanted and what we expected,’ Fox said. ‘We were pretty good last year, I actually think we were the 20th or 25th best team in the country, but we had problems. Now the goals have kind of come to fruition.’

Behind good health and a strong, more mature sophomore class, led by Graves and Medrano, the men are poised to become a regular in the top 10. For Fox, the huge improvements this year is quite simple: The team is ‘just running faster.’

The women’s team is used to this kind of success, having reached the NCAA Championships last season in Terre Haute, Ind. Meanwhile, the men mostly stayed home, only sending Busby and Brad Miller to compete in individual events.

It looks like this year the women may have some company.

‘It was lonely not having the team there last year,’ Busby said. ‘It is going to be nice when the team qualifies and we can finally go with the women and root each other on. If we could both finish in the Top 10 in the country, that is the best thing that could possibly happen.’

restern@syr.edu