Cross country faces tough test

Facing their largest opponent field this season, the Green Wave competed against stiff competition Oct. 11 at the Auburn Invitational in Auburn, Ala. The women’s team finished in ninth place while the men’s team earned 16th, competing without junior standout Phillip Aagard, who was in Sweden to fulfill his military commitment to his country.

The women were led again by freshman Rachel Bryan, who ran the five-kilometer course in 19:00.99. That time was 16th in a field of 163 competitors. Fellow freshman Aubrey Phillips registered a 26th-place finish to help pace the Green Wave women. Junior Lisa Green finished 34th with a time of 19:46.36 as senior Sarah Bumby and freshman Helen Kenworthy completed the scoring for the Green Wave women, finishing 71st and 92nd respectively.

Without Aagard, the Green Wave men were led by sophomore Tyler Chapman, who finished 59th in a field of 185 runners. Chapman completed the eight kilometer course in 27:07.52. Fellow sophomores Kevin Martes and Dave Posnick followed Chapman, finishing 105th and 115th, respectively. Bret Guy and Mike Moore, also sophomores, rounded out the scoring for the Green Wave, finishing 143rd and 158th, respectively.

The women’s race was won by Samford with 50 points, followed by host Auburn with 78 points, with Mississippi State (81 points) rounding out the top three finishers. The Green Wave women registered 224 points to place ninth in a field of 21 teams.

Portland finished first in the men’s race with 36 points, followed again by Auburn with 74 points, with LSU (124 points), Alabama (142 points) and Florida State (160 points) rounding out the top five finishers. The Green Wave men scored 468 points to finish 16th in a field of 22 teams.

While the results of the Auburn Invitational may seem disappointing, Assistant Coach Mike Corn was not too worried about the team’s performance. Their times were slower than their previous race run on the same course, but Corn said many coaches also observed that their runners ran much slower times.

“We came to this race with a totally different game plan than in previous meets. We decided to go out with a fast, hard, early pace,” Corn said.

By implementing a different race strategy, Corn wanted to gauge limits for his runners in preparation for the Conference USA meet at the end of the month. He was very pleased with the effort given the Green Wave’s game plan.

“We learned what we were trying to find out from this race,” Corn said.

The Green Wave have been struck by a recent spat of illnesses which has prompted the team to skip the Nicholls State Invitational and concentrate on getting healthy for the C-USA meet on Oct. 30 in Chicago.

The C-USA meet will be the culmination of months of preparation by the team. Corn remains upbeat about the team’s chances in the meet given the relative youth on both the men’s and women’s sides.

The women will run four freshmen including Bryan and Phillips, who have become the leaders of the team. Corn is anxious to see how they will respond to the added pressure of the C-USA meet. The men will field a team that will include four sophomores, along with junior Aagard.

Corn said that there is no doubt that experience helps in a meet such as the C-USA championship, but he is confident that the youthful squad will handle the pressure well and come home with a solid showing.