Cross Country To Open Up Season On Friday
9/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Sept. 1, 2011
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin cross country teams open up the 2011 season on Friday when they host the Lumberjack Opener at Pecan Park. SFA will meet up with nearby Lon Morris College in a relay-style meet that will include two-member teams running a pair of loops apiece.
"I expect the team to be excited for it to be a real race, but it's going to end up being more like another work out for us," new head cross country coach Cody Clark said. "Really, I just want to see a good, controlled and even effort from them in this one and then we will evaluate where we are and move on from there."
The women's race will start at 5:30 p.m. with the men's race set to begin at 6:15 p.m.
The course is a 2,000-meter loop through Pecan Park. The competitors will be paired up in teams and will trade out laps on the loop in a relay style. The women will run two circuits each for a total of 8,000 meters, while the men will do three laps each for a total of 12,000 meters.
The defending Southland Conference champion Ladyjacks will have two of its top three returners back for 2011 in senior Stephanie Ganter and junior Lauren Smith. In all, SFA's roster includes six runners, with five having already gained at least a year of experience at the collegiate level.
However, aside from Ganter and Smith, the Ladyjacks' future also looks bright with each of its other four runners being underclassmen.
On the guy's side, first-year head coach Cody Clark has 11 runners at his disposal, led by senior Xavier Rodriguez, an all-region performer from a year ago. Rodriguez is one of three seniors on the squad, along with Adam Saloom and Harmon McClanahan
Both the men's and the women's teams have the attention of the South Central Region, with each team ranked in the top 10. The men check in at seventh in the poll as one of four Southland Conference teams in the fold. Meanwhile, the women find themselves at No. 8 in the initial count with the Southland contributing nearly half of the teams in the 15-team ranking.
-SFA-
