Golden Eagle runners facing sizeable challenge at Commodore Classic Saturday
The Tennessee Tech cross country teams will be among 29 schools running Saturday morning at the Commodore Classic, hosted at Percy Warner Park in Nashville by Vanderbilt University. The men will get things started at 9 a.m. CT with an 8K race, followed at 10 a.m. by a women’s 5K contest.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Following two weeks of competition, the
Tennessee Tech men's and women's cross country teams head into a
completely different type of challenge in their third outing of the
2014 season.
Tech will be among 29 schools running Saturday morning at the
Commodore Classic, hosted at Percy Warner Park in Nashville by
Vanderbilt University. The men will get things started at 9 a.m. CT
with an 8K race, followed at 10 a.m. by a women's 5K contest.
With more than 250 runners scheduled to compete, the race is
certain to be fairly congested. Much more congested, in fact, than
last week's race which proved to be a head-to-head dual meet
between Tech and the University of Indiana. The week before, Tech
opened at the Carolina Invitational with a field of four men's
teams and seven women's squads.
This week, the men' field will include 29 teams, including 16
Division I programs. The women's race will feature 26 teams
including 17 Division I squads.
"Our runners have really enjoyed the first two weeks of the
season, and this season will throw a completely different
experience at them," said first-year coach Wayne Angel. "We've run
against one of the better schools in the nation (Indiana), and
we've faced some teams who are more on our level. This week, it
will be all over the board as far as competition goes, and we'll
really get a good feel about where our program stands."
Last week at Indiana, sophomore Brennan Huber overcame the tough
course to post a personal best 8K time, finishing in 26:53.
Transfer Geoffrey Sambu, running his first 8K race as a Golden
Eagle, earned a Top 10 finish and established his Tech PR with a
run of 26:09. Sophomore Sam Lariviere's personal best at that
distance came last year at the Vanderbiilt meet with a time of
27:51, a number that is likely to fall this week after his efforts
of the first two weeks this season.
None of Tech's women were able to dent their personal best marks
last week at Indiana, while a week earlier Sarah Wilson set a new
PR at the Carolina Invitational of 21:22 for the 5K race, and
freshmen Baylee Balgemann, Anna Cooper, Lera McNamara and Lathie
O'Niell established their collegiate best numbers, all of which
will also be challenged this time out.
Among the teams scheduled to compete are two from the Ohio Valley
Conference (Tennessee State and Belmont) in addition to the Golden
Eagles. Also in the field will be four teams from the Southeastern
Conference (Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State).
Other Division I foes will include Middle Tennessee State, Western
Kentucky, Davidson, Lipscomb, Samford, Central Arkansas,
Chattanooga, Memphis, Louisville, and Alabama State.
"Our teams have shown improvement over the first few weeks,"
Angel said. "Our times last week at Indiana weren't as good as the
previous week, but the course at Indiana was tremendously more
difficult. That was expected. What I liked most was how hard
everyone competed both weeks."
Weather conditions for the race are expected to be cool, with a
forecast high of about 75 degrees. It is also expected to be dry,
which will be a huge departure from the races in the mist last week
at Indiana, making the course slick and some tricky footing.
Complete results will be posted on TTUsports.com once they become
available.
