Doug Brusich has seen several dozen St. Ambrose University men's cross country teammates come and go over his four years.

But, this season it has been more about the arriving than the departing for the Bees, who have 46 runners out for the sport this fall. Of those, 20 are freshmen. With another 11 as sophomores, not only are the SAU teams young, but they're both trending more so.

And Brusich, one of the men's captains, could not be happier with this development.

"My first couple of years, guys were running all over the place (during practices) and they weren't pushing each other in packs," Brusich said. "Now, we have three packs of guys, all at different levels and in each pack everyone's pushing everyone else, to get better."

With the goal of a cross country team being the creation of the tightest pack between a No. 1 and the No. 5 runner, having more runners means more options and more opportunities to get better, faster.

Women's co-captain Brooke Ashcraft is a junior, but like her younger teammates, she, is something of a newcomer at St. Ambrose. The former United Township runner initially began her collegiate cross country career at Western Illinois two years ago, but transferred back to the Quad-Cities after her freshman year.

She came for the chance to run closer to home, she has stayed because the Bees have all their priorities in the right places.

"Probably the best part about it is that we run together, but we also eat together - and we don't talk about running - and we spend a lot of time with our teammates," Ashcraft said. "The biggest thing is to keep girls out and interested in running. That's easier when you're friends away from the practices."

The captains and cross country coach Dan Zeimet said using one running strategy that extends throughout the academic year has paid off for cross country and track.

"I think it's a credit to the coaching staff," Brusich said. "And Zeimet does a great job of making the workouts fun, so that guys will want to come back for next year."

Now, the Bees - despite their youth - are expecting to win the Midwest Classic Conference title. The men's team expects to compete at nationals.

"It's a feeling that everybody has a piece in the puzzle," Zeimet said. "Everybody contributes to it. Last year's group (that finished 30th at the NAIA national meet) is an example of hard work focused on a goal. The guys that were there talk about what it was like and those others feed off of that. We're excited about that."

In short, every expectation has been changed, and in just a few short years.

"I think all the guys are coming in thinking about that," Brusich said. "The workouts are hard, but you get to enjoy yourselves as well."

And the women want in on the action after being shut out since 1991 from the national meet as a team.

"I think it kind of showed us where we were at," Ashcraft said of her experience of competing at nationals as an individual in 2008. "Competition at national meets is at a whole new level."