Mark Smith is a licensed builder and an accomplished runner who set an American road-racing record nearly 20 years ago.

Smith is now embarking on a different kind of building process as new coach of the Suttons Bay cross country teams.

“I’m excited; I came into a really good situation with a great group of young runners who have a lot of potential,” he said. “We’ll do the best we can this year and hopefully become even better in the next couple of years.”

Smith is no stranger to northern Michigan running circles. He is a 1981 graduate of Cadillac High School, and was the Class B state champion in cross country as a sophomore, junior and senior while running for the Vikings.

He ran collegiately at Eastern Michigan University, where he was an All-American steeplechaser, and was invited to the U.S. Olympic trials in 1988. Later that year, he set an American record in road racing when he won the Old Kent Run 25K race in Grand Rapids. He’s also a multiple winner of the National Cherry Festival race.

He received his indoctrination into the Suttons Bay program last year when he served as an assistant track coach who worked with distance runners. One of the young runners he guided was freshman Ben Wynsma, who will lead the Norse boys’ team this year as a sophomore.

Last May, Wynsma ran a 10-minute two-mile to quality for the state meet in track and Smith said the young runner is poised to continue his improvement.

“This will be his first full year of cross country,” Smith said. “He ran for a couple of weeks last year in cross country, but also played soccer and he’ll be doing that again this year.”

The only other Norseman runner with cross country experience is junior Tom Pritz. New to the team this year will be sophomores Mark Jasinski, Chase Palmer, and Sawyer Lawler.

Smith said that practice began last week, and has included training time in “camp” at the Leelanau Outdoor Center.

“It’s given us a chance to get away, bond as a team, and focus on running,” Smith said, adding that the athletes ran 20 miles on each of the first days of practice. “That’s more than they’re used to, but they know what it takes to properly train.”

The Norse girls’ team is short on numbers, but still a threat to post impressive performances this year, Smith said. The four team members include senior Rachel Farrell, and juniors Elizabeth Adams, Cassandra Buffum and Lizzie Freed.

“Elizabeth and Cassandra went back and forth during the track season, and push each other very well,” Smith said. Adams also qualified for last year’s state cross country championships.

The Norse runners opened their season last week at the Glen Lake Invitational, and compete this Saturday at the Benzie Invitational.