SFA Cross Country Opens 2005 Season
8/31/2005 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Aug. 31, 2005
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin cross country teams will open the 2005 season Friday at Pecan Park with the Lumberjack Opener. Runners from SFA, Northwestern State and Midwestern State will participate in the event.
The women's race is set to begin at 5:45 p.m. with the men following at 6:30. The races are organized in a relay format, with two-person teams combining to run an entire course. SFA will enter three men's teams and two women's teams with one unpaired runner competing in each race. Northwestern State will race four men's teams and two women's teams, and Midwestern State will enter four teams for the women's race.
"It's a good way to start off the season and get into the routine of racing again," SFA cross country coach Lou Snelling said. "This is a good setup for us because of how we run it and because it is at home. It's a good thing for us to do at this point in the season."
Snelling said the relay format is preferable for meets at this time of the year, when runners may not be as well-conditioned as they are later in the season.
"It's a way for us to have race experience without physically taxing ourselves over the full distance," the coach said.
SFA is coming off another successful 2004 campaign. The Lumberjack program won last year's Southland Conference Championship, its fourth straight SLC title. The Ladyjacks finished second, narrowly missing out on their third consecutive conference crown.
Following the Lumberjack Opener, SFA will head to College Station, Texas for the Texas A&M Invite on Sept. 10.
-- SFA --
