BETHANY, W.Va. -- Point Park men's and women's cross country open their 2026 seasons on Thursday in the West Liberty Invitational. The women are set to compete in a 5K at 6 p.m., and the men will run a 6K at 6:45 p.m.

Point Park features a strong group of returners from the 2025 season, highlighted by reigning MEC Champion and MEC Runner of the Year Cassondra O'Connor. O'Connor, who turned in a time of 22:28.64 at last year's championships, earned First Team All-MEC accolades. The men's team returns three of its top-five finishers from the 2025 championships: Elijah Bechdel, Pedro Lemos and Chase Bowen. 

For Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach Tim Creamer, the goals of the offseason were to bolster the returners and create a team environment in an individual sport. "We are really, really excited about the mix [of returners and newcomers]," Creamer said. "We'll have a deeper, more competitive team.

"From day one in preseason we started preaching 'running as a group' … if we have workout groups in practice, that should correlate [to the race]," Creamer added. "You want to have that team mentality when you're competing, even if it is an individual sport."

PPU's women's team finished second at the 2025 MEC Championships, and the men's team took sixth place.

In the MEC Preseason Poll, the Point Park women's team ranked third, and the men ranked fourth. 

Point Park's men's and women's teams were both ranked in the 2026 US Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Atlantic Region Preseason Poll. The women ranked fifth in the region, the highest of any MEC school, and the men ranked eighth. 

Creamer acknowledged the polls as good for the program, but emphasized that the teams still need to go out and take care of business.

"Preseason polls are preseason polls," he said. "While you want to be ranked and given that notoriety that your team is one of the top teams in the region … you also want to keep that as even-keeled as possible.

"This is a great accomplishment for both teams to be ranked in the regional poll, but the goal is, in late November, to be in the top three of the regions to make the national meet … the build toward that one in November is the ultimate goal for the team."