Oct. 30, 2009
NEW MARKET, Va. -
George Mason will compete for a conference title in both men's and women's cross country on Saturday morning at the Colonial Athletic Association Cross Country Championships at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in New Market, Va. The men's eight-kilometer race will begin at 10 a.m. and the women's six-kilometer race will follow at 11 a.m. The awards ceremony will close out the championship at noon.
"The CAA Cross Country Championships are the first championship meet both this season and, looking ahead to track, for the year, so we really would like to set a good tone for this fall and the whole year," said George Mason Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Andrew Gerard.
The Patriot men will be looking for their fourth consecutive top-three finish at the meet. Sophomore Everett Hackett and junior Scott Tekesky each finished among the top-20 at last year's CAA Championship meet and will be among the contenders for the individual title this year.
"On the men's side, at the very least we want to improve on last season's third-place finish, but more importantly, build some excitement and momentum as we move on to the Regional Championships in two weeks," Gerard said. "We've had some sickness sweep through the team in the last two weeks, but everyone is now ready to go and we're ready to race aggressively."
Mason will face stiff competition from the favorite to win the men's race, William and Mary. The Tribe currently rank ninth in the nation and second in the Southeast Region, and return eight runners who placed in the top-11 and earned all-conference status at last year's CAA Championships.
On the women's side, the Patriots will attempt to break a string of four straight 10th-place finishes at the championship meet. The top finisher for Mason at last year's meet was junior Samantha Fickel with a time of 24:20. Freshman Rochelle Sceats has paced the Patriots this season, running the team's top-two times.
"So much of the women's team is new this year that our goal is just to establish ourselves higher up in the CAA, give our team a jumping off point for the future and see what we can do right now," Gerard said. "This will be many of the women's first collegiate championship meet so we're not quite so focused on a certain place as we are on just racing to our potential and seeing where that puts us with this whole new team."
The women's race features three regionally-ranked squads. William and Mary is currently ranked fifth in the Southeast Region, while James Madison is a couple slots behind in seventh. Delaware is ranked 14th in the Mid-Atlantic Region heading into the conference championship.
