Winning a conference title is one thing. Defending it is completely different.

The University of Dayton's women's cross country team will have to face that challenge this year. The team will begin competition by hosting the Flyer 5K Challenge on Saturday, Sept. 4, in Kettering, Ohio.

The Flyers captured their first ever Atlantic 10 Conference cross country title last year, and they are the preseason favorites to defend their title in the 2010 preseason coaches' poll, announced last week.

Head coach Sarah Hinkley believes her team deserves the top ranking, but knows that it doesn't translate into success.

"What's on paper," Hinkley said, "doesn't mean a whole lot. They need to stay focused every day and working towards the ultimate goal. We don't and won't talk at all about being picked as A-10 Champs. We'll talk about competing and training hard to achieve that goal."

This is Hinkley's first year as the Flyers head coach. For the last three years, Hinkley was an assistant coach for both the men's and women's track and field teams at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich. She ran collegiately at Western Michigan and has two top five finishes in the Detroit Free Press Marathon and competed in the Olympic trials in 2008.

Hinkley inherits a roster with seven of Dayton's top finishers in the 2009 A-10 Championships, including all-conference performers senior Maureen Bulgrin, senior Liz Coorey and junior Elissa Mason.

Hinkley also said expectations can be both positive and negative. A little pressure is good and healthy, she said, but not always.

"[Expectations] can become a negative when as a team you put too much emphasis on the A-10 Champ pick," she said. "We have to finish with the lowest score to be the actual A-10 Champs."

And we'll know whether the Flyers are the low score at the A-10 Cross Country Championship on Saturday, Oct. 30, when the meet is held at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Pa.