MILWAUKEE - With another year of experience under their belts and most of the squad returning, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's cross country team seems poised to do damage in the Horizon League in 2001 after a season of learning in 2000.

The biggest challenge for the Panthers might be overcoming their lone loss, Aaron Nodolf.

"When [Nodolf] came here from high school, he was a project," said head coach Pete Corfeld. "But he developed into a leader. He did a lot for the program and it's tough to not have him coming back."

With the depth the Panthers expect to have, however, nobody is going to be calling the loss of Nodolf the death of the squad. "We need a guy to replace Aaron, but it's not that far out there that some of the guys that ran last year can step up," Corfeld said.

The man most are expecting to fill Nodolf's shoes is Milwaukee native and South Florida transfer Cornelius Hill.

"He's going to be a candidate for some individual championships right away," Corfeld said. Hill, the top runner in Florida while at USF, brings an impressive résumé, having qualified for the NCAA cross country championships twice and having finished his career at Bay View High School as the second best runner in Wisconsin, placing only behind nationally-renowned Olympian Gabe Jennings. Hopes are high for Hill, who will be expected to run with the leaders in every race and will likely pace the Panthers in 2001.

Backing up Hill will be fellow seniors Pat Harrington and Eric Jelinski. Harrington finished 2000 as the second runner in the Panther pack with a number of strong late-season finishes, including a 12th place run at the league meet. After struggling his sophomore year, Harrington ran strong as a junior and hopes to make similar strides going into his final year.

Jelinski finished the year as the Panthers' third best runner and also looks to improve in 2001. After adding 40+ points to the Panthers' totals at the conference meet as a freshman and sophomore, Jelinski was able to take 19th at last year's league meet, and hopes to continue to climb the standings this year.

Leading the youth movement for UWM is sophomore Andy Kivioja. A member of the two-time WIAA Division 2 Champion Grafton 3200 relay team and a sub-2:00 half-miler in high school, Kivioja came somewhat out of nowhere to earn a spot in the Panthers' rotation, finishing 35th at the league meet. Kivioja and junior Jeremy Dunn will likely round out the Panthers' top five.

Dunn moved up sixteen spots from his freshman year to take a 29th place finish at the league championships in 2001 and, like the others, sees room to improve this year as well.

Returning from last year's squad and looking to crack the top five will be a number of Panthers with varying levels of experience. Among the seniors, Nick Pryor and Joe Tuttle will be returning after finishing one behind the other at the MCC Championships last year.

Joining as sophomores are Eric Gresham and Wisconsin transfer Nick Viall, brother of Panther women's basketball center Maria Viall. The Panthers are also hoping for some surprises out of their recruits, Nick Bruskewitz, Ricky Epps, Bryan Hassemer, Steve Saul, Micah Hanthorn and Jason Straka, each of whom comes to UWM following impressive high school careers.

All of this year's runners have been working hard over the off-season to improve the team's standing, both inside and outside the league. Last year's conference championship was taken by Butler with an amazingly low score of 18. While Butler runners landed the top two places and five of the top six, with only Nodolf breaking up the pack, the Bulldogs lose two of their top three runners to graduation this year, and may be vulnerable heading into 2001.

Among the teams that will be looking to knock the Bulldogs off their perch will be Loyola, Wright State and Youngstown State. The Ramblers finished a distant second to Butler at last year's conference championship, but still had two runners in the top ten, both of whom are returning. Wright State nudged past the Panthers to take third place at last year's MCC by one point and will be strong again in 2001, and Youngstown State is this year's lone addition to the Horizon League.

While this veteran Panther squad could catch up to the traditionally talented and deep Butler, Loyola and Youngstown State programs, the three schools have a history of assembling strong teams and won't fall without a challenge.

Beyond the league championship, the Panthers particularly want to improve on their 24th place finish at regionals, a spot that Coach Corfeld felt the team can definitely better in Terre Haute this year.