Cross Country Set For Auburn Invitational
10/3/2008 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 3, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin cross country team will compete for the first time in two weeks on Saturday when it takes part in the Auburn Tiger Invitational. The race will feature three of the top 30 teams in the country and a host of regionally ranked squads.
With a record number of entries, Auburn has divided each gender into blue and orange races. The Ladyjacks will run in the women's orange race, whose 24-team field includes Washington and Florida State -- currently ranked second and third in the nation -- along with No. 27 Iowa. The men's orange race will pit the Lumberjacks against 26 other squads, including No. 21 Auburn and No. 26 Florida State.
"The field is usually awesome here, and this year is probably going to be one of the stronger fields they've had in a while," SFA coach Lou Snelling said.
The meet is held annually at Indian Pines Golf Course. The women's orange race is the second race of the day and is set to go off at 9:30 a.m. The men's orange race will follow at 10:15. Snelling said that the course is usually very fast with good footing and a little roll without being too hilly.
"The cool thing about Auburn is they've been running this meet for a long time, and this course is going to be very similar to what it's been in the past," Snelling said. "So we'll be able to compare this year's race to our past races there and give ourselves a historical mark to measure against."
SFA is coming off a strong performance at the Texas A&M Invitational two weeks ago. The Lumberjacks posted a second-place finish, beating four teams that were ranked ahead of them in the NCAA South Central Region preseason polls. The Ladyjacks, racing against five of the top six women's teams in the region, finished sixth as a team with two runners cracking the top 30.
In the men's race, sophomore Dennis Yeats and junior Keith Mahipala paced the team with a pair of top 10 finishes. Yeats took eighth with a time of 25:00 on the 8,000-meter course, and Mahipala was 10th, coming across five seconds later. They were chased by redshirt freshmen Mitch Ownbey and Logan Smart at 15th and 18th, respectively, giving SFA a strong lead pack. Sophomore Elliot Starcevich was the fifth runner across the line, finishing 40th.
"With the men, it was certainly nice to see us come into that meet 12th in the region and beat some of the teams that were in front of us," Snelling said.
The Ladyjacks were paced by a pair of true freshmen. Stephanie Ganter finished 19th with a time of 18:12, and Brittainy Robertson took 28th, clocking in at 18:28. Sophomore Amy Shackelford was next, finishing 34th with a time of 18:43 on the 5,000-meter route. True freshman Brette Fleming-Wood and sophomore Marie Flores rounded out the scoring runners, finishing 44th and 53rd, respectively in the stacked field.
"We talked, before the race, about how whatever we did at A&M we knew we were going to get better, so it's exciting to start the way we did," Snelling said.
-- SFA --
