For the Dayton men's cross country team the fall 2009 season is all about respect. Respect from their coaching staff, respect from the rest of the Atlantic 10 and most importantly respect for themselves.

 "At the end of the 2009 spring season, we began referring to the 2009 fall season as the season of respect," head coach Rich Davis said. "For every meet I set expectations for the guys and for every meet somehow they find a way to slightly exceed those expectations. In doing so they've earned my respect. They're dedicated to the sport and they've taken ownership of it and that's turned into a lot of respect from others but most importantly self respect among the team."

 Coach Davis said that one of the challenges for the Flyers has been their depth. In cross country, just as in golf, the low score wins and is derived from adding up the placements of the team's first five runners. For example, a perfect score in cross country is a single team recording the overall first through fifth place finishes for a score of 15. It's easy then to see why depth is so crucial.

 "Our guys have to be dead on all the time because we don't have the depth that if one guy doesn't succeed that we can succeed as a team," Davis said. "We're not like most teams competing for the A-10 title in that sense."

 Because of this the team's success is driven, primarily, by three men: Juniors Matt and Christ Lemon (the two are twin brothers) and RS senior Mike Andersen.

 "The Lemon twins are the first ever UD Flyers to achieve the national championship race and they did that in their sophomore seasons last year," Davis said. "The two of them are led and motivated by Mike. He was very instrumental in attracting the Lemon brothers to UD. And the three of them were crucial in the recruitment of Greg Roeth who is our fourth man."

 Coach Davis said that the immediate goal for the Flyers is to win the A-10 Conference meet on Saturday in St. Louis. For the first time in the 29 year history of the program, the Flyers enter the conference meet ranked as the number one team in the conference.

 "All those rankings don't matter once the gun goes off," Davis said. "It's how you run on the course. But we want to represent the respect that the A-10 coaches are giving us by making an all out effort to win that race as a team."

 And as the season winds down with the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet on November 14 the team hopes to finish at least sixth (the Flyers by the way are ranked sixth in the region's poll) and earn an at large bid to the national meet. The top two teams from the Great Lakes Region receive automatic bids to the national meet. The top four individuals also receive invites to the NCAA national meet.

 "Our goal is to work to prove our pre-race ranking in the coaches' poll," Davis said. "And hopefully we'll get in that top six and earn an at large bid. But like I said, we're having a great season and it's a lot of fun when you're doing so well."