Over the past three seasons, the Shawnee State University Men's Cross Country Team has participated in the NAIA National Championship Meet.  The Bears have finished each of the past two seasons ranked in the Top 25.  Despite the departure of 4 of the top 7 runners from last year's team, first year coach Eric Putnam has high expectations for Bears this season.  Shawnee State enters the season ranked 22nd in the NAIA Pre-Season Poll.

Eight runners return from last year's squad, including three who ran at the National Meet.  Senior Dirk Hollar (Minerva, OH) has run in the last three National Meets.  Juniors Larry Gardner (Carrollton, OH) and Scott LeMaster have run in the last two National Championships.  Also back for the Bears are senior John-Marcus Murray (Springfield, OH), juniors Kris Jones (Johnstown, OH) and Caleb Arnold (Enon,OH), and sophomores Jeremiah Morrow (Grove City, OH) and Corey Snyder (Canton, OH).  Arnold became the school's first NAIA All-Scholar Athlete in 2004.

Additions to the team include freshmen, Dan Gleason (Springfield, OH), Cody Smith (Springfield, OH), Chris Roush (Gallipolis, OH), Josh Pierce (Hillsboro, OH), Bill Bonner (Chillicothe, OH), and Joe Jinks (Chillicothe, OH).  Roush was a 3-time conference champion at River Valley High School.  Gleason and Smith were all-conference performers at Southeastern and Northwestern High Schools respectively.

The 2005 eleven meet schedule is very demanding.  The schedule opens with the 7^th Annual Shawnee State University Invitational and includes the Centre College Invitational, the Winthrop University Invitational, the Greater Louisville Classic Invitational, the Rio Grande Invitational, the All-Ohio Invitational, the Wilmington College Fall Classic, the Southeastern Classic, the AMC and NAIA Region IX Championships at Shawnee State University, and the NAIA National Cross Country Championships at Louisville, KY. 

"I'm really excited about my first season at Shawnee State," said Putnam.  "I think we can build on the solid foundation laid by Coach Mangus, and take the team to its best ever finish at Nationals.  Cedarville and Malone continue to sit at the top of the conference.  We've finished 2nd in the conference each of the last two years.  We have our work cut out for us to get over the top."