This Week: Asheville Cross Country Carnival
9/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field, Cross Country
The University of Alabama men's and women's cross country team travels to Asheville, N.C., for the Asheville Cross Carnival. The University of North Carolina, Asheville will play host for the meet, which features both high school and collegiate races. The men will run an 8-kilometer race slated to begin at 9 a.m. Eastern Time while the women will race for 5 kilometers with that race scheduled for a 9:45 a.m. ET start. The university men and women will compete against 11 other schools: UNC Asheville, Lees McRae, Mercer, Western Carolina, Marshall, Milligan, Wofford, Queens, Charleston Southern, Wake Tech and Montreat. The Tide is coming off of team wins in both the women's and men's dual race against the Samford University Bulldogs on Aug. 29. This will be the first time this season that many members of the veteran squad will compete.
The Crimson Tide women are third in the USTFCCCA South Region rankings this week, while the Alabama men's team enters the weekend ranked eighth in the region.
The Crimson Tide will travel 22 athletes to Asheville. The women's squad will see season debuts from juniors Kimberley Ficenec, Katelyn Greenleaf, Meropi Panagiotou, Rebecca Stover. They will be joined by sophomores Hannah Waggoner and Allison Gregg and freshmen Caroline Barlow, Emily Edwards, Veronica Lyle and Alison Ringle. The men's squad will travel senior team captain Matt Airola, as well as juniors Justin Ahalt, Parker Deuel and Eric Sivill. Joining these veterans will be sophomores Peyton Ballard, Conner Thompson and Robbie Farnham-Rose, as well as freshmen Andrew Bull, Garrett Bull, Jeff Edmondson and Connor Ferrentino.
"Since we didn't run our normal starting group at Samford a couple weeks back, this is our first real look at our primary runners this season. We've had a good offseason and summer of training, and I think things have gone well. I think our athletes are ready. They are anxious to get started. We usually have raced by now, so this is something they have been looking forward to. We did something a little different against Samford. We decided to give our youngest runners the chance to represent the team. We wanted them to get a chance to approach a race with the right mentality and to execute the plan as a group. I was very pleased with how they performed. We won both races with teams made up almost entirely of freshmen, so I couldn't be more pleased. I think both of our teams will be focused on staying with our lead runners and competing as a pack. If we can do that, and our lead runners compete as we think they can, I am very optimistic about how we will do this season."
The Tide takes to the road again for the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa., on Saturday, Oct. 4. The invitational will feature 135 teams. The Tide men will run an eight-kilometer race while women will run six kilometers.
Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaTrack on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.
