Stony Brook, N.Y. - The Stony Brook men's and women's cross country teams open the 2016 season Saturday when they host the Stony Brook Season Opener.

Stony Brook will be joined by Hartford and Quinnipiac for the first meet of the season. The day will begin with the women's 4K at 10:30 a.m. with the men's 5K to follow at 11:15 a.m.

"We will use the first two meets to just get a feel for where we are at this point of the season," said Head Coach Andy Ronan. "This weekend is more about seeing the new members of the squad compete for the first time in the college environment. The home meets this year are low-key compared to last year, so I feel it will be a nice relaxed introduction for our freshmen. We will add a little experience to each group,Christine Eisenberg and Liz Caldwell will lead the group this weekend on the women's side and Nick Cruz and Ben McDermott will add some experience to men's team."

Saturday marks the first of two home meets for the Seawolves as they will be home again on Sept. 10 to host the Wolfie Invitational. The Stony Brook will continue their training with three away meets before they head down to Kingsville, Maryland, as UMBC hosts the America East Championships on Oct. 29.

The core of the group (for the women) is made up of juniors and seniors, led by defending conference champion Christina Melian, who is working her way back from a spring injury," Ronan added. "Christina will spend September building her fitness and will not open up her competing season until the Paul Short Invitational on October 1st. By the end of October I would expect her to be well on the way to being ready to challenge for the title again, and also put herself in line for a return visit to the NCAA Championships, " said Head Coach Andy Ronan. "Behind Christina, we have Christine Eisenberg … She had a breakout spring season by qualifying for the NCAA Regional Championships in the 3000m steeplechase. If Eisenberg can bring the same level of performance to her cross country season, then we have a very strong number two runner.

"Following from there, we have senior Liz Caldwell and junior Talia Guevara … They have come back to campus healthy and fit so I'm hopeful that this is going to be there breakout fall season. If that happens then we will be a tough team to compete against in the conference. We added some new faces with Annika Sisson a transfer from Arkansas who is a regional qualifier in the 1500, and Clodagh O'Reilly from Ireland who has won several National Championships in cross country. Annika and Clodagh not only add depth but experience … We feel they can contribute a lot to the program this fall and beyond." 

"The men are coming off the best fall season since 2012 … They stepped up at the end of 2015 season and took second in the conference and 10th in the region. We return several key members of that squad, including Danny Connelly and Bryce Hedman. I believe this is a strong men's group … Danny and Bryce will be key to our success at the end of the season, and we will be looking to sophomores Ben McDermott and Kevin Vinolas to step up and contribute in the championship portion of the season. We have also added some good freshmen, including Cameron Avery from New Zealand, who comes in after just winning the National Junior Championships in Cross Country. Also joining us are Chris Biondi and Luke Coulter, one or both of them could potentially become the rookie of the conference."