Friday, October 27
Abilene, Texas
ALL DAY
Stephen F. Austin
at
SLC Conference Championships
Cross Country Set to Compete at Southland Conference Championships on Friday
10/26/2017 10:19:00 AM | Cross Country, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
ABILENE, Texas—Months of preparation and many miles on the legs have all come down to this Friday, when the Stephen F. Austin men's and women's cross country teams will give their all at the Southland Conference Championship in Abilene, Texas. For the SFA women, the race is an opportunity to defend their title from last fall, when they claimed the championship by finishing five runners inside the top 12 finishers en route to a comfortable win. For the men's team, it represents a chance to earn the title for themselves, with it having gone to Lamar in each of the past four seasons. The women's race will begin at 8:30 a.m. CT while the men's start time is set for 9:30 a.m. Both races will stream via Facebook Live.
SFA has navigated through a gauntlet of events against nationally and regionally ranked competition this fall, both on the men's and women's side. Injuries have also played a role, with one of the top runners for each side going down with injury and forcing the teams to adjust accordingly, and each team possesses substantial youth as well. With the team's performance in recent meets in mind, SFA cross country coach Cody Clark has made some adjustments to help his team prepare for the race.
"We've really been dialing back our volume a bit to prepare for this race", said Clark. "However, our pace Is not going to back off, we're going to keep that up. We're getting focused on the race mentally, preparing for the task at hand, and getting ready to give it everything we've got. We prepare for this one moment every single season, and they know the importance of it, and I think we've traditionally done a really good job over the past seven years in preparing for this race."
SFA does possess one advantage heading into Friday's race, and that is a familiarity with the course that the race will take place at. Both the men's and women's teams competed on the course earlier this fall at the Naimadu Classic, which was hosted by Abilene Christian and also included Southland foe Incarnate Word as well. The course is a flat one, which offers runners very little shelter from the elements, which look to be substantial on Friday.
"The course is flat, and it's probably going to be windy and cold on Friday, so whether that plays in our favor or not I don't know", continued Clark. "We're going to do our best, we're going to have to make smart decisions on how we're passing people and making sure that if you're going to go around somebody, then you better make a move to another group, otherwise you're going to be breaking the wind for a lot of people."
As the team has battled injuries and youth throughout the fall, overall performances from the team have suffered, but added experience for the newer members of the team as well as a two week "rest period" since the last race should give SFA a good chance at a much improved effort on Friday.
"We've either been tired or not raced well in all of our races this season, so it's especially important that we don't race like that again in the most important race of the season", added Clark. "We've learned a lot, our freshman are growing up, so we'll see what happens, but I'm feeling more confident as the days go by."
Heading into Friday's race, several other teams figure to be atop the team standings based on performance this season. On the men's side, SFA will have to deal with defending champion Lamar, as well as McNeese and UIW, both of which have been regionally ranked for the majority of the season. For the women, host Abilene Christian appears to be the heavy favorite on paper due to a No.3 regional ranking as well as a trio of top runners. The Lamar women also figure to be in the mix, having earned a No. 7 ranking in the region heading into Friday's race and returning the 2016 top finisher for the women in Evelyn Chavez.
"We can look on paper and see where everyone stands, but at the end of the day you don't know what's going to happen", explained Clark. We don't know how the wind and cold is going to affect other teams and other individual runners, I don't even know how that's going to affect us. It's a clean slate, nothing is decided until we run this race. They know that, we know that, and I'm excited to see what we can do."
The race is comprised of a two kilometer loop, which the men will complete four times in the 8k race, and the women will run three times as part of the 6k race. The women's 6k will start at 8:30 a.m, followed thereafter by the men's 8k start at 9:30 a.m.
SFA has navigated through a gauntlet of events against nationally and regionally ranked competition this fall, both on the men's and women's side. Injuries have also played a role, with one of the top runners for each side going down with injury and forcing the teams to adjust accordingly, and each team possesses substantial youth as well. With the team's performance in recent meets in mind, SFA cross country coach Cody Clark has made some adjustments to help his team prepare for the race.
"We've really been dialing back our volume a bit to prepare for this race", said Clark. "However, our pace Is not going to back off, we're going to keep that up. We're getting focused on the race mentally, preparing for the task at hand, and getting ready to give it everything we've got. We prepare for this one moment every single season, and they know the importance of it, and I think we've traditionally done a really good job over the past seven years in preparing for this race."
SFA does possess one advantage heading into Friday's race, and that is a familiarity with the course that the race will take place at. Both the men's and women's teams competed on the course earlier this fall at the Naimadu Classic, which was hosted by Abilene Christian and also included Southland foe Incarnate Word as well. The course is a flat one, which offers runners very little shelter from the elements, which look to be substantial on Friday.
"The course is flat, and it's probably going to be windy and cold on Friday, so whether that plays in our favor or not I don't know", continued Clark. "We're going to do our best, we're going to have to make smart decisions on how we're passing people and making sure that if you're going to go around somebody, then you better make a move to another group, otherwise you're going to be breaking the wind for a lot of people."
As the team has battled injuries and youth throughout the fall, overall performances from the team have suffered, but added experience for the newer members of the team as well as a two week "rest period" since the last race should give SFA a good chance at a much improved effort on Friday.
"We've either been tired or not raced well in all of our races this season, so it's especially important that we don't race like that again in the most important race of the season", added Clark. "We've learned a lot, our freshman are growing up, so we'll see what happens, but I'm feeling more confident as the days go by."
Heading into Friday's race, several other teams figure to be atop the team standings based on performance this season. On the men's side, SFA will have to deal with defending champion Lamar, as well as McNeese and UIW, both of which have been regionally ranked for the majority of the season. For the women, host Abilene Christian appears to be the heavy favorite on paper due to a No.3 regional ranking as well as a trio of top runners. The Lamar women also figure to be in the mix, having earned a No. 7 ranking in the region heading into Friday's race and returning the 2016 top finisher for the women in Evelyn Chavez.
"We can look on paper and see where everyone stands, but at the end of the day you don't know what's going to happen", explained Clark. We don't know how the wind and cold is going to affect other teams and other individual runners, I don't even know how that's going to affect us. It's a clean slate, nothing is decided until we run this race. They know that, we know that, and I'm excited to see what we can do."
The race is comprised of a two kilometer loop, which the men will complete four times in the 8k race, and the women will run three times as part of the 6k race. The women's 6k will start at 8:30 a.m, followed thereafter by the men's 8k start at 9:30 a.m.
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