Freshman Jeff Sweeney spends hours each day training with his teammates, practicing as a full-fledged member of Syracuse University’s dominant men’s cross country team.

And all he gets in return for his preparation is a seat on the bench.

One of four team members who will redshirt their freshman season, Sweeney cannot run in any meets this season in exchange for a fifth year of eligibility in 2012-13. While such an arrangement may sound tough to deal with, especially for the coming year, no one will hear any complaints out of the Syracuse native.

‘I’ve been thinking about redshirting for a while now, and I’ve pretty much convinced myself that I’m OK with it,’ said Sweeney. ‘It was my decision.’

The East Syracuse-Minoa High School graduate sees his choice paying dividends next year.

‘I think I’ll do really well because I’ll have that year of cushion to get used to the schedule,’ he said. ‘I’ll understand how things work.’

In assessing his young runner, fourth-year coach Chris Fox views the redshirt as a useful preparation tool when combined with Sweeney’s strong work ethic.

‘He’s shown good work, he’s learned what to do at this level, but he’ll be another year or two before he’s ready to go at the Division I, top 20 kind of team level,’ Fox said.

Under Fox’s guidance, the SU cross country program (ranked 28th nationally) has transitioned from a middle-of-the-pack Big East competitor to a regional powerhouse with aspirations of success on the national scale. His leadership was a big factor in Sweeney’s decision to attend SU.

‘He’s a great coach,’ the freshman said. ‘He’s brought the team to another level, and I’m hoping he can take me there, too.’

Sweeney is not alone in his transition from high school senior to redshirt freshman. His roommate, freshman runner Patrick Geoghegan, will sit out this season as well. He shares Sweeney’s views on redshirting.

‘We’ll have another year of experience under our belts, another year of training,’ he said. ‘We can only get better.’

Geoghegan, a native of Oak Park, Ill., sees benefits in rooming with someone who can relate to his situation and talk to him about it from a similar perspective.

‘It’s helpful to have a roommate on the team, especially one who lives in the area,’ he said.

Sweeney’s ties to Syracuse growing up make running for SU particularly special for him.

‘It’s pretty cool,’ he said. ‘I always followed the Syracuse lacrosse team and the basketball team, so, I mean, it’s kind of cool.’

However, even in his hometown, Sweeney had to deal with the daunting reality of competing for a nationally ranked squad.

‘It was intimidating at first, but everyone’s really nice on the team, and they’re all really supportive,’ he said.

Geoghegan said that everything is going well so far with is roommate.

‘(Jeff)’s liking it,’ he said. ‘He hasn’t raced yet, so you can’t tell exactly how he’s doing, but he’s looking good, and he tells me he’s feeling good.’

Sweeney will need to continue his progress if he is to contribute to the program in years to come. After a victory at the Harry Lang Invitational at Hamilton and the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State, the team appears poised to continue its ascent to national prominence under Fox.

‘So far, so good,’ said the coach of his team’s performance this year. ‘We had as good a meet as you can have at the Penn State meet. For an early season meet it was really good. Now we’ve got three weeks to go and then we run (with) some of the top 10 teams in the country, so we’ll find out more about how good we are in three weeks.’

For Sweeney, the suspense will have to wait until next year.

dafersh@syr.edu